Pale Morrigain
by OnyxIvyStone
Summary: He didn't believe in love. There was only pain. Still, there was something powerful about her. She silenced the pain. Some things that never should be still are. AU Chapter 10 is up.
1. Chapter 1

(I couldn't get this story out of my head. So I wrote down the first chapter. Enjoy. Also, I do not own Inuyasha. Ivy)

1-

She was tired, that was all there was to it. The day had begun earlier than she'd liked and ended later than she expected and she was just simply tired. She closed her laptop and looked over to the two girls lounging on the overstuffed, entirely comfortable sofa. The youngest was laying backwards with her head and hair dangling off the ledge of the seat with her feet propped onto the back while the eldest of them laid with her head on the youngest girl's stomach atop a pillow. Their eyes were closed as they waited for the telltale clicking of the screen latch of her computer to signal the completion of another day's worth of work.

Rin's eyes flashed open and onto Kagome when the computer closed. She was slightly dizzy from the rush of blood to her head from her position while awaiting Kagome finishing her final few lines of code. She looked at the exhausted form of her dear and old friend from her up-side-down vantage point and smirked that Kagome's scowl didn't even look like a smile from where she was. "We need to get the hell out of here. We need air and people and music."

Kagome sighed and set her computer to the side as Rin and Sango sat up properly on the couch to wait for their friend's response. It took slightly longer than they had expected to receive it. "Do you think she'd mind? Being left alone for a few hours, I mean?"

"She's been telling us to go out every night since we moved in here. We've been here for five weeks, Kagome, and the only time any of us ever leaves this house is to get groceries. We didn't come here to hide, Mei-mei. We came here to live and help her live too. Right now all we're doing is enabling her by helping her hide." Sango said with conviction, noticing how deep Kagome's scowl had set. "Maybe if we go, leave her really alone for a while, she'll want to come out with us and stop being so afraid."

"Phobias don't work that way and you know it, San." Kagome retorted with a bit more of a keen edge to her tone than she'd intended. "I'm sorry…"

"Don't be." Rin replied softly with an understanding smile. "We've all become a bit more snappish of late. But… Kagome, you know it isn't a phobia. It's not an irrational fear without any explanation. Maybe if we prove to her that she doesn't have to be afraid, she will find a way to face her fear and fight it back."

"You just want to go clubbing."

"Hell. Yes." Rin replied to Kagome's words with a sharpness of her own. "We all love her, Kagome. We grew up together. We were raised like sisters. Hell, we even think the same way, but there are reasons beyond me just wanting to go out and party that I'm saying this. You're cranky. You're mean. You're no fun to live with and neither am I and neither is Sango and I'm sure it's got to be wearing on Chora. Now, the three of us are going to go to our rooms, take showers, brush our teeth and, instead of throwing on another set of pjs, we're going to get dressed up and go out and have some fun or else one of the three of us is going to go bug-fuck and I can promise you that won't be good for Chora cause we dropped our lives to come here, far the fuck away from the past, so she could pull herself back together with the people she loves beside her."

"Are you finished, Mei-mei?" Kagome asked, fighting to suppress the sharp sound of her laughter that was bubbling to the surface. Rin was such an angel. She was their baby sister and hardly ever cursed. Even when it was more than appropriate to do so.

Rin huffed. "Yes. Are we going, cause if we are, I'd like to T-Vo some of my shows."

Kagome stood and laughed low in her chest, shaking her head. "Let's go. After that little display, I'm not sure how I'm supposed to say no."

------

The music was always too loud. There were always too many people. There was never, ever enough alcohol to dull out the throng's scent and sound. And yet, here he was again sitting in the VIP box looking down at a mass of humanity, hanyou and youkai of one race or another grinding together in a motion that was more like a hideous orgy of flesh than dancing and moving with the beat of a no-name group's music who were performing aimlessly on the stage. Nothing worth his attention, unfortunately. Unfortunate because he, once again, had allowed his friends to drag him from his quiet, though, unfortunately, very rarely private, townhouse to listen to the group's sound. They'd all heard many good things about them, including him, and so they had decided on a night of scouting talent as opposed to a quiet night of poker, drinks, and, perhaps, a few films that hadn't yet been released in theaters that Shippo and his brother would bring from the studio once it was finished in the editing room.

He sighed and shook his head before, once again, slipping the plugs into his ears that he wore to such places to stifle sound from his very sensitive hearing. They were very nearly invisible once he had them placed and came in handy if the sound of the group was in any way displeasing to him. He hadn't found anything he'd liked in the sets they'd played and, from the lack of precision, he knew that it wasn't just an off night. Sadly, this wasn't the first time he or his companions had been misled by rumors of a group's talent and skill. Even more horrible, it wouldn't be the last.

Inuyasha watched from his seat as his brother again shielded his delicate hearing from the din of the crowd and horrid band. He shook his head. "Such a waste. Could have been home rather than listening to this shit."

"Hn." He replied before looking back to the four men who sat near him. Shippo had his earphones in and was drowning out most of the din with white noise as he worked on his laptop on one thing or another while Miroku sat with a script and a red pen in his hand, scribbling and slashing at the dialogue with his director's notes. Near him, swirling his cognac stood Kouga. The ookami had not removed his earplugs the whole of the night, but then, he did not have the kind of appreciation for music Sesshomaru did. If it had a beat, he didn't care. His talent came with public relations. He was a 'people person' and one that Sesshomaru found he could not function without. In general, the inu's senses were so blindingly, painfully sharp that most he came across were so hideous in one way or another that he found himself insulting them one way or another as he pulled away from them.

Speak of the devil. "Let us up there! We have standing invitations!" Kagura's voice was sharp and painful even through the shielding to his eardrums. She was a beautiful woman, there was no question. All of her friends were as well, but there was something to their scent and the incriminatingly pompous and self-serving tone to their all-together unmusical voices that set him on edge. With the exception, of course, of Ayame, Kouga's intended. She was not beautiful by Sesshomaru's standards. Nor was she particularly pure in her scent, nor was her voice all together pleasant, she was humble and gracious and, like the whole of those he chose to surround himself with, she respected his personal space.

He winced. Inuyasha's brow raised slightly as he noted the flash of expression on Sesshomaru's face and he walked to the entrance of the VIP box. Sesshomaru, while only his half brother and most certainly the most conceited asshole on the face of the planet, was still his friend and his business partner. When they were younger, they had fought, but both had found a grudging respect for the other's strengths as well as their weaknesses. He met the eyes of the guard and made a cutting gesture across his throat to which the two ookami guards nodded and looked back to the raven-haired woman before him.

The door to the upper box closed silently and Ginta and Hakkaku leered down at Kagura, Kanna, Kikyo and Tsubaki with unflinching eyes. Ayame was standing behind them with her eyes cast down to the floor. She hated it when her friends, or so-called friends, tried to use her to get to Kouga's friends and business partners. They always did, even when she begged them to just let it go and find someone else.

"Ayame has a standing invitation, not the four of you. She may go up. You four may stay down here and entertain yourselves some other way." Ginta said with a faint snarl.

Hakkaku reached out and touched Ayame's shoulder. She looked up and met his gaze before nodding and ascending the stairs to the VIP box. She opened the door quietly and slipped in quickly before too much of the screeching din could slip into the more quiet confined of the box. She nodded to Inuyasha who was shaking his head. "I'm sorry for them. I tried to tell them to leave it lie, Yash."

He waved his hand in dismissal before he sat again and turned his attentions back to his brother who was leaning his head back in the chair, rubbing his temples. "I got some of that stuff Jinenji makes up for your headaches."

Sesshomaru put out his hand after a moment of battling himself internally. The headache had been creeping into the forefront for nearly an hour and was hinting at its presence even before they had decided to leave the townhouse to come to the club. It was simply aggravated by Kagura's shrill voice. He felt Inuyasha place three of the hand filled capsules in his hand and then downed them in one swallow with a sip of soda water. He closed his eyes and simply waited for it to fade back. His senses were so keen that he was subject to frequent migraines and headaches. Usually they were triggered by one thing or another, however, every few months he would go into a sensory overload. Tonight the two causes were compounded. After a few moments the panging ache in his head had fallen back to a dull throb that he could tolerate. Slowly he opened his eyes and smirked mirthlessly. He just wanted to be left alone or at least in the presence of those who didn't overwhelm him and were mildly pleasant to be near. He'd given up on love long before.

Those he kept nearest him, who, on one level or another, soothed him, he called his pack. His brother's scent was enough his own and his father's that Inuyasha's mere presence in his home brought him some relief. The musk of Shippo's scent was so akin to the forest that he found easy repose around the kitsune. Kouga's scent was much the same for him as it was kissed with the scents of everything wild. And then there was Miroku. The man was a lecherous bastard of the worse sort, but he was fastidious to the point of what some might see as insanity. For Sesshomaru it meant that there was at least one human he could be near without being overcome with their gradually progressing mortality. Ayame, again, was tolerable. She carried only Kouga's distinct scent on her, marking her as his and so, even though he would have never considered her as a possible mate or even lover, he could stand her presence in his inner circle.

It was his curse to be the way he was. Most full-blooded youkai, though there were very few, did not suffer as he suffered. They had adapted and, in truth, their senses were not as sharp as his. He had been born in the late eighteen hundreds frail and sickly. His parents had not been close relations. They were tenth cousins, as the humans would have counted. His mother had barely survived the birth and had been left with a son who might not live. It took several months to diagnose his condition and then, when it was discovered, it was nothing that could be remedied. Only controlled. Most genetic disorders were that way. His mother and father had been in love, he had been told, but their love could not withstand the pain of realization that they had damned their son to such a painful life. His mother took it harder than his father. She had willed herself to death shortly before his second birthday and Sesshomaru had been left to a life of wondering if she had ever really loved him or his father at all. More than anything, he understood the frailty of love and that it was highly unlikely any female would be able to tolerate his malady, let alone find it in her heart to love him forever. Love did not last. It was a passing biological inclination as far as he understood it. The only thing that lasted was blood.

Inuyasha had been born between the mortal woman, Izayoi, and his father five years after Sesshomaru's mother had died. The boy was strong, powerful and healthy with the mixed blood of human and youkai. He'd hated his brother for a long time. He'd despised his perfection in his imperfect blood. It was when they were still only just boys that they had realized their true strengths as well as their true weakness. A sudden storm. Two boys lost in an unfamiliar forest. Had either of them been alone, they would have died. They learned to respect each other and, in time, to love each other as brothers and as blood.

"Would you like to go back, Maru?" He watched his brother's faint expressions for his answer closely. He was always so controlled. He had to be or he would be constantly reacting to every piece of information his overly acute senses were sending him.

He had almost answered with affirmation to Inuyasha's query when the softest scent touched his nose. Three scents, really, with the shadow of a fourth. His eyes diverted from the interior of the box and searched for the origin of the scent with a sharp need to place it. Pressed jasmine flowers, raven feathers, rich, silty earth and then… The scent of another. Faint and pure… A scent he'd only had the pleasure of once before far out of the city's reach. Pure, clean air.

------

The club was loud, crowded and dark with its industrial-gothic theme. She sighed inwardly and looked toward Rin who was bouncing happily beside her dressed in a pale pink slip-dress and combat boots. Sango, dressed in a dark tailored brown suit vest and matching pants with a white dress shirt unbuttoned to where the vest of her suit enclosed, exposing a tantalizing amount of skin, was standing at her other side as they made their way to the bar. Kagome leaned her back against the railing of the industrial steel bar lightly as Sango ordered their drinks, none of which contained alcohol. There wasn't a point to buying drinks and becoming intoxicated in the club when they could easily get drunk at home. They weren't there to drink, in any case. They were there to move and to let go.

She let her fingers slide down over the heavily embroidered, cobalt blue corset that was holding her in and up so perfectly. Gauzy, flowing sleeves from her undershirt flowed around her wrists that were covered with black leather, buckled bands that matched her pants made of leather, buckles and thick cobalt silk accentuating the legs as they belled over her steel toed combat boots. She sighed and shook her head slightly as she asked herself, once more, how she had been convinced to leave Chora behind.

Sango smirked at the questioning gaze of the bartender as he handed the three Italian sodas to her and she, in turn, passed each flavored drink to its matching drinker. She sipped hers slowly as she scanned the crowd. "The band isn't all that hot."

"No." Kagome replied. The hairs on the back of her neck were standing up. Someone was watching her. She turned her eyes to where she felt the watcher might be in such a way that she was looking out of the corner of her gaze. Covertly she met golden, inquisitive eyes owned by a shadowy figure in the VIP box and smiled a real smile as she finished her drink. _I'll give you something to watch._ She murmured to herself and looked to Rin and Sango. "Ready?"

Rin's eyes lit up and Sango laughed. "Just waiting for you to decide to get off your ass, Mei-mei."

"Then let's go, San." She laughed and grabbed Rin and Sango's hands as she dragged them onto the dance floor. It was clearing, as the band onstage broke into a cover song that they performed infinitely better than their own music but dismally compared to the real artist.

Rin felt her heart pang slightly and noticed the shift in Sango and Kagome's stance. _Oh, Chora…_ She steeled herself and gripped her dear friend's hand before releasing and beginning to move. When their eyes met hers, she nodded sharply and smiled sadly, trembling as her two sisters in all but blood smiled in return and began to move.

When they were children, the four girls would pull out their parents' old records and to play. As soon as the needle dipped and the table turned, the four would fall into a kind of trance. They moved together as one being as they danced and spun and twirled and dipped. They never needed partners. They had each other and their parents mused that, somewhere, a Parthenon of gods were regretting letting their muses free onto the earth. Rin, muse of art. Sango, muse of architecture. Kagome, muse of history. Chora, muse of music.

Only three, they moved in the same tandem, however there was a shadow among them. They were incomplete and they knew it, felt it, and understood it even though most, if not all, of the stunned crowd would ever be able to see where another should have been. Men looked on in desire while women looked on in jealousy. They knew. They felt it. They didn't care. They hadn't come to steal other women's men from them. They couldn't have cared less. They'd come to move, to be free and let go for only a short while before they returned to their sanctuary.

But Kagome had one other motive. She was giving one certain observer an eyeful of exactly what she promised herself he'd never have. As the song came to a close, she spun and met his golden gaze with her illuminated, pure, crystal blue eyes caught in a fierce look. "It isn't polite to stare." She breathed, but she knew he could hear her. Every full-blooded demon could, even in the crowded club, and she was utterly certain he was one.

The crowd began to applaud. They didn't bow. Rin and Sango looked to Kagome who was still holding the gaze of someone in the VIP box. "Mei-mei…"

Kagome blinked and looked to Sango with a sad smile. Rin took her hand and she nodded. "We should go home, San."

The three women walked to the entrance of the club. They ignored the words of men directed at them, napkins with numbers quickly jotted into the corner, everything including the sharp glares of four very angry women from the shadows below the VIP box. They'd had their fun and now it was time to go back to their sister who was still curled up under her comforter in her pajamas.

------

He blinked and watched as the woman with the startling eyes and pure, beautiful scent exited the club with her two… Sisters? Their scents were so different from each other they certainly were not related by any stretch of the imagination. Even her voice at a whisper promised to hold the kind of timbre that he would define as beautiful once he could hear it without the din of the club marring it.

"She was talking to you, you know." Kouga said with a faint smile touching his lips. "And you were staring."

"She is sad… Lost." He breathed, saying more in that moment than he had in the whole of the day. He felt his brother's eyes on him and turned his gaze to meet the mirrored gold.

Inuyasha nodded and nudged Shippo who was studying Sesshomaru in an intense way that was foreign to the kitsune. He hadn't removed the ear buds from his ears, but he'd heard Sesshomaru's words through the white noise. He looked to Inuyasha and nodded faintly. "I'll try to figure out who they were… She had been addressed as Mei-mei… That's Chinese for 'little sister,' I believe, so that wouldn't be her name… She called the other girl San… Have Ginta go and retrieve the digital listing of all Ids scanned at the door and I'll search through them."

"Any particular reason we're going through the trouble of looking those women up? Maru, they were lovely, no doubt about it, but they…" He silenced at the look Sesshomaru gave him. Miroku raised a brow and smiled crookedly. "What was it about her? You don't usually take any interest in anyone: youkai, hanyou or human."

"Apparently everything." Inuyasha said softly and noticed the faint quirking of his brother's lips in a barely suppressed smile. He met Sesshomaru's gaze and nodded. "We'll find her."

"I only want to know why she is so sad, Brother." He breathed with an unwavering gaze. "Who it is they are missing… That she is without."

Kouga's brow raised slightly and studied the inuyoukai across from him. "What do you mean?"

He looked down and scowled in an attempt to explain himself. He hated explaining himself or ever having to ask for anything. "There was a shadow scent among them… One who is always near normally, but who was absent tonight. Her absence made them sad… And when they moved together, it was as if one was missing." He sat back slightly and ran his hands through his long, silver hair. The pain in his head was returning full force and he feared it was more the absence of the woman's pure scent than the failing of Jinenji's herbs that was the cause.

"Maru?" So much concern was in that one word, his name that he allowed some curiosity to slip into his gaze as he looked up to his brother. There was something warm on his face. He reached to his lip only to see a dark red stain on his fingers. "Maru!" There was a bolt of pain sharper than any he'd felt before stabbing through his head shortly before the world went black.

------

Flashing lights and sirens passed them as they were driven back to their home from the club. Kagome's eyes widened with faint worry. Rin squeezed Kagome's hand and smiled faintly. "They're going toward the club, Jie-jie, not toward our house."

She nodded and smiled a sad smile. "I hope they're alright, whoever it is."

"What was going on back there, Kagome?" Sango asked softly and noted the quirking frown in her sister's brow.

"There was a youkai… A very powerful youkai in the VIP box watching us from the moment we stepped into the club."

"You mean staring at you." Rin interrupted, earning a pinch from Kagome. "Ouch! It's true, though."

"Miko senses aside, Kagome, how could you be sure he was staring at you?"

She shrugged and closed her eyes before massaging her temples. _What is this? I never get headaches…_ "I just was and am, is all. In any case, it's over now and we need to get back to Chora."

Sango and Rin nodded in response and silence descended onto the car as they were brought back to the silence and tranquility of their home.

Further in the distance, a slender figure stood and watched out her window at the city lights where her sisters were and would be returning from soon. She touched the glass tenuously and trembled before pulling back as fear overtook her. She pressed her eyes closed and then pulled the thick drapes to hide the world from herself. A soft sob escaped her throat and then another until she was weeping and curled in a knot on her bed once more. She missed looking up at the sky and spelling the air. She missed the trees and the ground and the rivers. She missed being outside, but every time she even contemplating leaving the shelter of her home, memory would overtake her along with the overwhelming fear that had taken possession of her soul. Once a day she would pull herself from bed to the piano that her sisters had so lovingly placed in her room. She'd write music for their project. Then she would go back to bed. No matter how much she wanted to go outside, to be free of her fears, there was the other part of her. The part that whispered in the dead of the night when she was most alone that she was not worthy of that kind of life again. Not after what she'd lost. Not after what she couldn't stop… Couldn't save.

There was no life for her. She only endured and sustained herself for them and she knew, one day, even they wouldn't be enough.


	2. Chapter 2

(I do not own Inuyasha.)

2-

He could hear someone pacing outside the door. Even with his ears heavily insulated with cotton and gauze, he could hear their foot falls as if they were inside a great cave, echoing and reverberating through his skull. He tried not to whimper. He bit his lower lip until it bled, until the din and pain in his head died down enough that he could muster the strength to open his eyes. The walls were white though curtained in shadow. A hospital. How well he knew those. The room he was in was empty, however, he could hear the ookami, Kouga, arguing with doctors further down the hall along with Shippo who was trying to keep both he and Miroku calm as they were informed of his 'condition' once more. As if they didn't already know. As if they didn't already live with his malady every day of their lives.

He could place the footfalls after focusing on the gate of the steps. His brother was pacing outside his room. Inuyasha always paced when he was worried. However, after living with Sesshomaru for the better part of their lives and tending to his gradually progressing ailments, the hanyou had become less worried about his brother's afflictions and angrier with the doctors who could not cease its progression. The healers of a hundred years prior seemed more informed than those in the modern age who bounced him from treatment to treatment without ever really looking at the side effects or if they were doing any good at all. Something must have been seriously wrong for Inuyasha to be pacing with such intent. Ten yards up the cheap linoleum, back then ten yards the other way and back. Over and over again. It was excruciating. What in all the kami's hell was going on?

That came down not only to the information he was able to glean upon waking up, yet again, in a white room with a clear plastic bubble around him to keep rogue scents from his delicate nose which, apparently, the doctors thought would be helped by stuffing cotton up his nose. How… Degrading. He removed them slowly and noted how soaked with blood they were before replacing them. Better not to second guess the nimbuses they were calling doctors in the modern age before understanding their motives. What could he remember from the moments before the world became only pain and blackness? He knew he was on extreme sensory overload earlier that day, but had convinced himself he could handle one night out. And then there was the girl. That girl with the haunting scent who moved with such grace and ability it was almost painful to watch. Everything about her spoke to her beauty and how he ached to be near her just for a while longer… Then he remembered.

Even with the herbs Jinenji had made for him to help control his pain, there was no way the ache should have vanished completely and yet, it had. It had the moment he'd caught her scent. He could focus on it completely and drown out the other scents around him and that one sense no longer in overload was enough to silence his pain.

And then she was gone. Her scent had dissipated. And then the pain had returned more greatly than it ever had before. He thought he was dying or someone had pierced his skull with a blade. He had been bleeding from his nose and, from the heavily saturated large plugs of cotton and gauze in his nose, currently; it had been one hell of a bleeder.

"No. Fuck, no. You ain't doing that to my brother!" Ahh, Inuyasha. The doctors, who Sesshomaru had been studiously ignoring for quite some time as he remembered the nameless woman who had been so affectionately called 'little sister' and who had captured his attention so completely, had brought him to his boiling point. Now the inuyoukai wished he'd been paying better attention to the secondary conversation.

"It is a good way of ensuring this never occurs ag-"

"You have some sort of death wish?" Kouga's voice sounded harsh to his ears. "I won't let you butchers do that to him. None of us will."

"In the end, it is his decision. Not yours." The doctor said smugly before he yelped.

Sesshomaru quirked his brow in question before the door to his room opened and a very angry looking kitsune dragged in a very helpless looking doctor. "Shippo?" He asked softly with a scowl.

"He's awake. Has been for a while now. So fucking ask him, you dip shit." The tone and language was entirely not the controlled, even-tempered kitsune he knew. Something had set him off.

The doctor composed himself, though he was still trembling. "Taisho-sama, we believe we have found a way that will end your constant pain and numerous visits to our door. I have the paperwork ready. If you would just sign…"

"What am I signing?" He asked with an incredulous tone.

"Well, you see, we are basing our actions in your case on previously studied cases and, it would seem that the removal of one of your senses would help ensure the others did not overwhelm you. Since the olfactory glands are easily removed with our modern…"

"No."

"Taisho-sama, please. You haven't-"

"I said no."

"If you have another episode like this one, you might become a vegetable. You had a series of very intense seizures. Your heart stopped once on your way here…"

"I would rather die complete than live only a portion of who I am." He said with sudden venom. "I have lived over a century as I am. My pain, my senses are a part of who I am, doctor, and I will not simply sign that away."

"It is only your sense of smell…"

"Only?" His eyes flashed with inner fire, causing the doctor to startle and drop his carefully organized paperwork. "Tonight I learned something rather remarkable that would baffle you and the medical community. There is a cure for my pain that has nothing to do with surgeries or implants or therapies or medicines. For a moment, one brief, pure moment, I knew what it was like to live without my head feeling like it was going to explode. It was the passing of that moment that put me back in this bed, not my frailty or the hope that you could fix me. I am an inuyoukai. My world is what I can smell and hear and taste. Only? Inuyasha, call Jaken and get me released from this place. I tire of it."

The doctor's jaw set as he gathered up his papers. "You will need to sign several releases of liability to me and this hospital, Taisho Sesshomaru. I will not be held responsible for negligence upon your death."

"Get the fuck out of my brother's room." The hanyou snarled. The doctor scowled and walked out. Before he closed the door, Inuyasha called after him. "Send some nurse with the paperwork, you ass. I don't want you near him."

Upon closing the door, Sesshomaru raised a brow and sent his brother into a fit of laughter. Kouga, Shippo and Miroku fought to hold back their chuckles. "What is so funny?" He raised an elegant hand and pointed to the gauze stuffed so fully into his nose. "This is not funny."

"No, it's goddamn hilarious. So was watching you tell that doctor off that way. I had to think of dead kittens just to make it through without busting up, Maru." His brother retorted as he rubbed at his eyes to remove the tears from laughter. "But, seriously… What were you talking about? A moment without pain?"

He sighed and looked from his brother to his friends who had all taken up seats around him. They were still very worried for him. Visibly worried which, in turn, spurred him into action to quell their fear. They were his pack. He had an obligation to them. "The girl… The one who whispered to me about staring at her."

"What of her? Ginta's still working on getting the list, by the way." Shippo said, pushing up his clear, green tinted techno glasses up the bridge of his nose.

"It was her scent." He confided simply. "I could focus on it entirely without being distracted for even an instant by any other scent in the room. In over a century, no scent has done such a thing for me and I doubt another ever will. When her scent caught me, my pain ebbed away entirely because I could fix one of my senses entirely and the others seemed to become more manageable. So understand me when I say that it is imperative that you find her."

Kouga and Inuyasha exchanged a confused glance before Miroku chuckled and caught their attention. "And what do you plan to do once we find her?"

"You hentai bastard." Sesshomaru grumbled. "Every scent can be synthesized. There is a company in Europe, nearly five hundred years old, that specializes in perfumes who do just that. If I can find her, I can send for one of their specialists who can create some sort of cologne I could put into the filters of a breathing mask. It would solve everything."

"You don't even care that she might be the only woman you've ever met that you might be able to be happy with?" The lecherous bastard just wouldn't stop.

"I care that even if that were an option for me, it would never be an option for her." He snapped with a sudden, pained tone. He brought his fingers to his temples and rubbed back the building tension headache. It was so different than a migraine, the pain was almost welcome. He closed his eyes and sighed. "I've lived my life surrounded by pack members I can stand and who I enjoy. No female has ever approached me for any more than what I could give her and even if this woman were different, that difference would keep me from ever allowing her close to me."

"Why would you do that to yourself, Maru?" Inuyasha asked with worry and a confusion that he'd never heard from his brother.

Sesshomaru sighed and met his brother's gaze with complete honesty. "It is hard enough to know the burden I have placed on you and Kouga, Shippo and Miroku simply by existing. I never have asked you to stand beside me, but the four of you have. You've abandoned possible lovers for my sake, given up opportunities abroad all for me and I couldn't ask that of another… I can't let it happen especially considering that the outcome of such a pairing with this woman would result in a child I could never care for… Who I might not be able to even be near enough to touch. It wouldn't be fair or kind or right. And so I will not and I will not speak on this again, Inuyasha. Please don't ask me to explain further. I only wish to sleep in my own bed tonight."

Inuyasha scowled, but nodded in acquiescence. The nurse arrived and the papers were signed. Shortly thereafter Jaken arrived with clothing, full earplugs and a breathing mask that filtered all scents. They wheeled Sesshomaru to the limo and helped him inside before joining him in complete silence. Once home, they helped him to his room where he promptly fell asleep in his own bed. Once they had closed his soundproof door, Inuyasha turned to Shippo and gave him a decided look. "Find her. I don't care how you do it, but find her and bring her here. That asshole is not getting away with being unhappy his whole life."

"He'll hate you for this, Yash." Kouga said softly with concern flashing through his gaze. "I mean really hate you."

The hanyou shook his head. "I've waited my whole fucking life to see him look at someone the way he looked at her… For the first time, the fucker finally has some hope and I'll be damned if I let him let it go. If he hates me, fine. At least I'll have done what a brother should do. He doesn't have the right to decide what he deserves."

------

She couldn't sleep. The damned headache wouldn't go away no matter how many Tylenol she crammed down her throat. When she reached the recommended limit for a day, she gave up and accepted that her head was just going to hurt and she wasn't going to get any sleep. Fine. Be that fucking way.

She never got headaches. She never had insomnia. Even after the events of a year past, the very events that had eventually brought them to Japan, she had never had issues sleeping. Even after weeping for hours, she never had even the remotest pain in her head. But tonight was a different story. She sighed and looked back to her computer after, once again, massaging her temples for some short-term relief.

Kagome smiled faintly. Sango's basic code was flawless and elegant as usual and Rin's art was fantastic paired with Chora's score. It all fit together perfectly as if created by one mind of one vision… And, really, it was. The virtual reality, Internet based fantasy game was loosely based on the fourteen hundreds around the world and the beginning of the Power Wars between magical or spiritual beings like youkai and faeries and humanity. It had been Morgan's idea; they had simply followed through after he was gone. Her smile became shadowed and sad as it faded away completely.

Morgan. Chora's older brother by about fifty years. He was a full raven faeries, the immortal son of the Morrigain and Dagada. Dagada had been killed in the final Power War in England and the Morrigain had fled to the United States for asylum. The country had been neutral throughout the Power Wars considering they hadn't even been a country when the whole fucked up thing began. They, along with the other countries of the Americas, had won their independence in the middle of the Power Wars and had held no alliance with their mother countries.

And then there had been the Restriction Laws of 1965 when a small electronics company paired with a pharmaceuticals firm to create a technological method for keeping youkai and faeries under control. With an inconspicuous bracelet worn on the ankle, all powers were silenced and, if the device was removed, a signal would be sent to the nearest military base as to which youkai or faerie had violated the federal mandates. The injection they were given at the same time that they had their anklets activated ensured that the youkai and faerie's natural enhanced healing factors were reduced to that of any normal human so that if they did remove their anklets, they could be easily put down with one bullet from a sharp shooter rather than with the force of a full army.

Such is the way of fear. Morgan had been raised in that world. He didn't want it for Chora, his fair half sister. The Morrigain did love again. She met and married a human man from New York who was good friends with three Japanese friends who had moved to the United States to improve their financial opportunities. They, in turn, married United States citizens and the four couples decided to raise their children together on the West Coast in a small town called Auburn, California. The Danes, Higurashis, Satos and Inoues raised their daughters together as if they were sisters in the high hills of Northern California. Summers slipped by that were filled with iron laden red dirt and the scent of pine clinging to their clothing all with the watchful eye of Morgan. Morgan…

Kagome shook the thought and returned to her work instead of what had been lost… But there was so much that the four young women had lost. All they had was each other to cling to… And Chora… Sweet Chora. No, she wouldn't do it to herself again. Not again. She had to be strong. She was always strong. She held them together when it felt like the world was falling apart.

She focused on the lines of code she was writing currently. With Sango's base code, Rin's art and Chora's music held together with Kagome's almost magical string of algorithms and values, the fifth level of the game was complete and ready to be burnt and shipped to Souta and Kohaku. The boys were first cousins of Sango and herself who lived in Kyoto and would beta their game as they went along. Even barely in their first year of high school, the boys caught every glitch that they had and helped the young women refine their work until it was very nearly flawless.

"Why are you up so late?"

She turned her gaze from the glow of her computer to the slight form of her friend in the doorway. Pale blue, almost lavender eyes looked at her from a pale face framed with long, golden hair. "Chora, you should be asleep…"

"I'm always sleeping, Kagome. At night I walk through the house and look in on the three of you to make sure you're ok. You aren't usually awake at this time." Her voice was soft and almost like a song when she spoke. How much Kagome ached to hear her sing again…

"I'm just not tired."

"That's a lie."

Kagome laughed softly and shrugged. "Can't lie to you, can I?"

"You can, but I'll always catch you at it." She replied before joining her on the bed. "What's bothering you?"

Kagome shrugged. "First I went to a club without you and I felt guilty leaving you alone so long."

She tilted her head in a very avian expression. "That's ridiculous. I'm glad you went. You and Rin and San needed to get out for more than just groceries. You've all taken such good care of me and I… I just want you to know that I'm fine by myself now. I promise."

"So that's one thing down…" She smirked and continued. "Some band slaughtered a song of yours."

"Oh?" She asked with a broad smile. "They're still doing covers of my stuff?"

"They still play Pale Morrigain songs over the radio and you haven't put anything new out in over a year. Stuff from your first album is still selling and being played regularly, for the goddess' sake, Chora. If it's five years old and it makes it on the global top 100 every month, it means you're up to timeless level of fame."

"And I wasn't even trying." She murmured wistfully. Then she met Kagome's eyes with a fixed, entirely serious gaze. "So what's the real reason?"

Kagome winced and looked away dejectedly. Mustering her strength and angrily dissuading her tears, she answered. "There was a guy… This full-blooded youkai at the club up in the VIP box. He wouldn't stop staring at me, Chora. And he had these golden eyes like nothing I'd ever seen… And for a minute I…" Her throat closed and she stopped just in time before she lost control.

Chora sighed and embraced her dear friend for a long while. She knew Kagome wouldn't cry. It wasn't that she couldn't, it was that she wouldn't allow herself to. Slowly she drew back from her dear friend and met her gaze. "You have to be happy someday, Kagome. You have to let yourself take a chance again."

"I'll probably never see him again, Chora. It doesn't matter now."

"It matters because you're awake when you should be asleep, working when you should be dreaming. Don't try to bull shit me, Kagome." She pushed a stray lock of raven hair from her brow. "He'd want you to keep living, you know?"

"He might have, but I don't, Chora." She confided softly without looking up from her really rather fascinating hands.

The hanyou sighed and leaned to kiss her sister's cheek. "Yeah, well… If I get to live through this hell, so do you. You don't get to pussy out on me, Kagome."

She smiled to Chora sadly and nodded. Her headache remained, but, rather suddenly, she was achingly tired. She yawned and smirked. "I think it's time…"

Chora nodded and closed Kagome's computer with a click before setting it on her desk. She turned back to her sister at the door and watched her as she snuggled down into her bed under her comforters. "Rest well."

"I love you." She murmured softly.

The beautiful, pale raven hanyou switched off the light with a smile. "I love you, too."

Once her sister and friend had gone and closed the door, Kagome allowed herself to weep once again for what was gone.

------

"Are you sure that this is the whole list, Ginta?" Shippo asked incredulously as he looked at the data strip before slipping into the drive.

The ookami bodyguard scoffed. "You think I want Kouga to kick my ass? He called me five times after you got Sesshomaru home threatening to cut off my balls if I didn't get the whole file."

Shippo smirked at Ginta's words before waving at him in dismissal. "Just checking."

"Who are you looking for, anyways?"

The kitsune turned a sharp gaze at the ookami and raised an incredulous brow. "From a page in Yash's book, you ain't got no fucking business knowing. Get lost."

Ginta snarled and shook his head before walking away. It wasn't worth getting in a fight with the kitsune. The bastard played dirty and wasn't afraid to flaunt his victory.

Shippo settled in for what he assumed would be a long night and early morning of searching rows and rows of names paired with pictures after his initial search for the name 'San' went nowhere. Well, it went somewhere. Fifty fucking names with some permutation of San in them. All women. Absofucking great. He pulled a couple of cans of overkill energy drinks from his mini-fridge and a package of pixie-sticks from his secret stash in his desk and started his search beginning with the 'San' girls. Four energy drinks, half the bag of dyed, condensed sugar and four hours later he found a Sango Sato whose picture matched the girl's face that he could remember who entered the club in a party of three with two other girls. A Rin Inoue and a Kagome Hig…

"Fuck me hard with a splintery ruler…" He said in a breathless voice. "You're shitting me!" He yelled at his computer and threw a can at the door of his room as a sleep deprived Miroku peeked in. "You're fucking shitting me!!!!"

"No, I'm really not. First, that's really gross, Shippo. Second, ouch! I mean, that would be painful even if I were into that and stretched first." Miroku said as he rubbed sleep from his eyes.

"What the hell is the kit yelling about now?" Inuyasha asked as he walked up behind Miroku as Kouga joined them from the other side of the hall. The kitsune was bouncing on his bed, touching the ceiling. "Awe fuck… Who let him at the pixie-sticks again?"

Kouga ran his hands through his hair. "Too damned early for this." He grumbled and entered the room after pushing past Miroku. "Hey. Super-dweeb. Mind ending your flying lesson and telling us what the hell is going on and why we're awake at this hour?"

Shippo bounced off the bed and did a flip before landing next to his desk and pointed at his computer. "Name. Her name. She's there. Read it!!!! Read it now!"

Kouga scowled and approached the laptop shortly followed by Inuyasha and Miroku. They looked at the woman's picture whose scent had so appealed to their friend and pack-mate. "Kagome Higurashi… Fuck! You've messed with this, right? In your hyper-active, suicidal mind, you thought this would be funny, right Kit?"

Shippo felt his self begin to crash and groaned at the oncoming headache from hell, worse than any hangover he'd ever had or ever would have. "I fucking wish I had. That suicidal shit might even have been funny right about now."

Inuyasha scowled and ran his hand through his bangs with a gruff harrumphing sound. "Well… I guess I should be the one to tell him, then."

Miroku looked away from the enchanting creature on the screen and met Yash's eyes seriously. "How do you figure?"

"Simple." The hanyou replied before turning to go back to bed for the short few hours he had before his brother would wake up. "He won't kill me. Just maim me."


	3. Chapter 3

(I do not own Inuyasha.)

3-

"No. I'm sorry. It's just too nice outside, Kagome." Sango said as she tapped her foot on the hardwood. She was staring out the bay windows with a barely concealed smile kissing her lips. She turned and met her sister's gaze. "We have no choice in the matter, Mei-mei. We'll simply have to pack up some food and blankets and work in the park down the street today."

"Is that so?" Kagome asked as she met Sango's gaze over the rim of her coffee cup as she finished taking yet another long drag of the dark, rich liquid.

"Oh, yes. Definitely. Not even the slightest choice in the matter. If we don't, the world might implode." She lost the battle with her hopeful smile and then did a small bounce when Kagome nodded faintly.

"Alright. We might as well. Have Rin put together lunches and I'll make sure that the computers are charged before we go."

Sango bounced over and kissed Kagome's cheek with a soft giggle. "This is going to be a great day!"

"Uhu. You're cute sometimes. Even cuter than Rin." She smirked at Rin's confused look as she walked into the kitchen. She was wearing a set of pjs that had pink and white hearts all over it and a pair of monster-rabbit slippers out of Monty Python. "Make sure you let Chora know before we go."

"Ok. I'm going to go and get dressed and gather up the blankets." Sango chirped happily. She placed a kiss on Rin's cheek before bouncing up the stairs.

"Why is she cuter than me? I am the owner of cuteness!" Rin whined as she poured herself some coffee and grabbed a pastry off the counter. She sat across from Kagome who was studiously ignoring her as she read the international news on her computer screen. "Me! The cutest! The baby! The BABY, Kagome!" She put her hand over the glowing monitor and met Kagome's gaze with a sleepy but determined look. "Say it! Now!"

She laughed and then patted her little sister's head playfully. "You are the absolute cutest in the house, Mei-mei."

Rin swatted at Kagome's hand in annoyance. "In the world, you mean."

Kagome chuckled and sighed at the sticky fingerprints on her monitor. "In the world. Now get me some screen cleaner before that condensed sugar shit dries and gets crusty on the monitor."

The younger girl chuckled and complied. On the way back to the table she poured her self another mug of coffee and grabbed another hideously sweet confection that was more frosting and berry goop than bread. She sat and raised a brow at Kagome's incredulous look.

"You know that's it for you, right? Two cups of coffee and two of those terrible sugary things and you've got your allotment for the day." Kagome said in all seriousness.

"I'm twenty one years old, Kagome!" Rin whined as she took another bite of her 'breakfast.' "I think I can make my own decisions."

"Rin, why did we have to go and buy two cans of paint last week?" Kagome asked after she none too carefully closed her laptop.

"Because I got artistic." She replied, as she seemed to skip merrily around the real issue, hoping Kagome wouldn't press it any further.

"Because we got in a crunch and you smuggled several packages of sweet-tarts up into your room so we could make our deadline."

"I seem to remember something like that…"

"And while we did, in fact, make the deadline and you got several months ahead with the artwork for the game, you also got very 'artistic' on your walls." Kagome sighed as Rin ducked her head and blushed. "Then, when you came down off your whacked out sugar high from hell, you looked at your walls and proclaimed that it wasn't 'artistic' enough and that hot pink next to lime green made your head hurt so you and San and I had to run down to the nearest hardware to buy two cans of paint that was dark enough to cover up your 'artwork.' Ring any bells now?"

"Oh… That last week." Rin said with a scowl as she stared at her pastry. How she loved sugar! How she adored her sugar highs! When she had been painting in New York, she'd go on highs that lasted several days before she finally allowed herself to crash. Spectacular, agonizing crashes that required much sleep and her dark bedroom for a few nights and days before the pain in her head subsided.

But they were worth it. Her art never sold so hot as it did when she worked off sugar alone. However, after several interesting 'incidents' in the last year or so stemming from reckless sugar usage, San and Kagome had put Rin on the wagon, as it were. Even Chora had been in on it. It didn't mean she didn't fall off the non-sugar wagon now and then. Hell, she made a game of it sometimes. Though the week prior had been more necessity than trying to drive her sisters up a wall with her hyperactivity.

"Uhu. That last week, baby girl." Kagome said with a hint of amusement. She honestly didn't care if Rin hyped herself on sugar so long as she didn't have to deal with the side effects or the after effects. In other words, had she not had to live with the hyperactive little chipmunk, she would have sent her off on her merry way filled with confections and as many sweet-tarts as the girl could stuff into her mouth. But she did have to live with her. She was her sister and family and, with Chora in the state she was in and the trouble and expense it took for them to even immigrate to Japan from the United States, they really needed to stick together for a while.

It had been Morgan's plan, really. Even though it went south after he was gone. Japan didn't have the rigid laws that the United States had. There weren't any anklets or injections. In fact, the Japanese government were so used to having youkai in their world that there was a working relationship built on trust that spanned back over five hundred years when the Power Wars had started. Japan had been one of the only countries that hadn't fought their indigenous youkai. In fact, they had ushered in new laws just to protect their rights that still held fast.

The plan had been to immigrate to Japan and, once it was official, the anklets and injections would be dealt with and Morgan and Chora could live normal lives as who they were rather than being under constant monitor and control. And then all hell had broken loose. Chora had lost it and with her ability to leave the house or even deal with new people she lost her ticket to Japan. Kagome, Rin and Sango could easily move back if they wished because one of their parents had been a citizen, but Chora and Morgan were a different story. With Chora's fame in the music industry worldwide, all she needed was a new contract with a Japanese production company and she could move on a work visa. In time, she would become a full citizen and Morgan… All he needed was her… Kagome.

Love is a strange thing. You do crazy shit for it. You do things that you never thought you would and accept things that make you distanced from parts of your worlds in ways you'd never have imagined. She had loved Morgan for so long that it seemed only right that they marry. They were already mated by the faerie and youkai standards. The actual ceremony would wait, though, until they had made it to Japan. But Morgan had never made it to Japan. When Chora had her breakdown, the production company, Taisho Corporation dropped her contract and she had no way to leave the United States.

Kagome had almost lost her mind with her temper. With Morgan gone, she was the closest thing Chora had to family and so she had begun dealing with everything for her from medical decisions to professional decisions. That included Taisho Corporation. She'd spoken with someone named Saito Kouga over the phone several times. The last conversation had ended rather badly. He informed her in a calm, deceptively soothing voice that once Chora overcame her ailment, they'd be happy to reinstate her contract. However, until such thing was accomplished, they could not waste their time or money on an individual who would bring them no revenue.

There had been screaming fits and crying fits and throwing fits before Kagome could even be approached by her sisters to discover what had happened. Once she'd explained, she sat down and wrote a six-page letter detailing exactly what she thought of Saito Kouga and his ingrate, asshole employer. One Taisho Sesshomaru.

She had been more than cruel. She had been livid and hurt and afraid and so horribly lost that she needed to lash out. And who better to lash out at than someone an ocean away who you already have reason to hate with your whole being?

A year later she had made a contact with a Naraku Onigumo who owned the Black Blood Entertainment Corporation. They specialized in games that were high end and, usually, virtual. That was when the old idea of a virtual reality game that the four of them built together came back into play. She pitched the idea to Naraku-sama and, within a month, he'd ensured the four women had working visas and, two weeks later, their full citizenship. Chora had her anklet removed and her injection neutralized for the first time in her life. It was her brother's dream come true, only not as he had dreamed it. And, for Kagome, it seemed hollow without him there to witness it.

Everything felt so hollow.

She felt the warmth of Rin's hand seeping into hers. "Hey… Where'd you go?"

Kagome looked up and met the younger girl's gaze. Her eyes were so warm and soft. They were the palest green that Kagome had ever seen and they sparkled with life. "A little too far in the past for my liking, Mei-mei."

Rin's gaze softened even more and she stood to kiss her sister on the cheek before hugging her tight. "Come on. Let's get dressed and go on our work-picnic, ok?"

Her little sister smiled and grabbed her hand only to drag her out of the kitchen and up the stairs to their rooms. It was a beautiful day. Too beautiful for the pain of what was done and gone.

------

"Kagome. Higurashi." He echoed the name softly and closed his eyes. It was early but he was still up. He hadn't had such a wonderful sleep in a very long time. It was full of visions of her and the memory of her scent. And then, over his coffee, his brother had told him her name. "Kagome. Higurashi. Are we sure that it's her and not some other woman by the name?"

"I had Shippo check." Inuyasha replied as he worried over his brother's calm. Normally, calm would have been his general demeanor, however, this moment wasn't normal. "She's the same woman, Maru."

He stood gracefully and walked to his study. He opened a drawer and from a file that was labeled with a very colorful curse, he pulled a six-page letter with the envelope still paper clipped to the top. He turned to his brother and Kouga who had walked to the door of his study in their curiosity. He held the letter out in front of their faces with a deep-set scowl. "This Kagome Higurashi. This wicked bitch that tore me apart because Kouga was insensitive to the needs of the artist who I explicitly told him I wanted under the label? This Kagome Higurashi who hung up on me eleven times when I degraded myself to attempt to call her to apologize? We are speaking of the same woman who also stilled my senses last night and brought me a moment's peace? I need to be certain."

Inuyasha's brow twitched and Kouga's eyes widened. "You kept the bitch's letter, Maru? What the fuck? After reading it and getting hung up on all those times, you tore around the house and smashed so many things I thought we'd be living in a leveled pile of wood and concrete after you finished with your tantrum."

He growled and gripped the letter a bit tighter as he let his arm fall to his side. His lip was twitching and aching to snarl. "That isn't the point."

"No, that is the point. Yes, this is the same Kagome Higurashi. The same one who, after she insulted you, you made into your own personal kicking post. You started making a game out of thwarting her attempts to get a working visa up until three months ago…"

"She stopped going through the normal channels three months ago, apparently." He snarled softly as his claws dug in and began to shred the letter in his hand. He had hoped she'd given up. "She must have gone through another company as she had intended to do so through us…" He scowled as he curtailed his emotions. The plan was still the same. He had to find a way to synthesize her scent and, if the woman were anything like the other women he'd met, the correct amount of currency would easily handle the problem. "It doesn't matter." He bit out. He met his brother's gaze. "I want you and Shippo to deal with this. After her experience with Kouga, I seriously doubt that she will listen to reason with him. No matter how much money I would promise through him."

It wasn't the first time in the last twenty-four hours that Inuyasha had wanted to slap his brother. The bastard was allowing his hurt feelings to govern his actions. But then, what had he expected? Sesshomaru never had played well with others.

------

The cool air felt so good on their faces as another breeze twirled around them. The sun was out, but it wasn't hot. It was the perfect day for a picnic. The three girls sat back to back with their legs out as they typed away on their laptops. Because of Kagome's late night work session, they were able to start on the next level of the game. They only had seven left and then they could submit it to Naraku-sama. The man was nice enough, though there was something about the hanyou that none of the girls liked. Even Chora, who had never met him in person, felt he was oily in some way, however, he was paying them well and he'd made it possible for them to leave the United States. They were in his debt and so they overlooked some of his more shadowy qualities.

Sango looked up as a very nice car drove by the park toward their street. It raised no suspicion in her mind and so she thought nothing of it. They continued their work as the car pulled up beside their house and a kitsune and inu hanyou looked up wearily at their door.

"So… This is her house?" Inuyasha asked from the driver's seat as he looked at the fairly nice western style two-story house before them. There was a fairly large unfenced yard in front and, no doubt, a larger fenced yard in the back.

"This is the address." Shippo replied before unbuckling his seatbelt and exiting the car. Inuyasha followed him a second later and the two men walked up the cement path to the front door. It was ornate dark wood carved with three ravens flying in a circle. The kitsune raised his brow. "Well… Shall we knock?"

Inuyasha nodded and raised the heavy iron knocker to signal their arrival. Within, Chora stirred and scowled. She didn't want to answer. Inuyasha looked to the driveway. There was a car still there. Nothing fancy, but that meant someone had to be home. He knocked again. The raven hanyou whimpered once before slipping from bed and into her fuzzy puppy slippers and bright blue robe. She moved down the stairs cautiously and looked at the door as someone knocked again.

"We should probably…" Shippo began but silenced as the mail slot opened. He cleared his throat and Inuyasha raised his brow.

Inuyasha knelt down and looked through the mail slot only to clash his golden eyes with pale violet ones. He cleared his throat and tried to clear his head as well. Who had glowing violet eyes? They were so unique and beautiful. "I'm looking for Kagome Higurashi…"

"Not here." Chora responded shortly. Even with the snappish tone, her voice sounded like music. "Go away. We don't want any puppy treats."

The mail slot closed and Inuyasha scowled deeply. "We aren't selling anything. We're looking for Kagome Higurashi."

"Go. Away." Came the muffled voice from behind the door.

"Look, I know you ain't here. I saw her in the club last night and she has blue eyes, not violet. I just want to find where she is. I want to talk to her." Inuyasha counted to ten and smiled faintly as the mail slot opened again.

Violet eyes looked up at him questioningly. "You aren't full youkai… You're hanyou. Kagome said that there was a full youkai with golden eyes like yours who was staring at her last night…"

"That would be my half brother. And, yes… He was staring at her. He would very much like to meet her." His voice softened as he noticed the light that flooded those haunting violet eyes.

"I want my sister to be happy." She murmured with a sincerity and warmth to her voice previously vacant. It seemed to run through his mind like a song he'd forgotten and finally remembered. "It's been so long since she's really smiled. But you're strangers and so is he and we have… Unique circumstances. If I tell her you came by, I'll need to know your name and his."

"My name is Taisho Inuyasha." He winced as the girl's eyes flashed with instant recognition. "My brother is…"

"Taisho Sesshomaru." She finished his words and then sighed dejectedly. "That makes things difficult."

Shippo groaned and Inuyasha sighed. "You don't know the half of it."

"Neither do you." She replied quizzically and closed the mail slot. She paused a moment and the put her hand on the latch.

Inuyasha and Shippo had turned to go when they heard the bolt being turned and the door opened. The hanyou and kitsune turned to see a small, slender girl in puppy slippers and a bright blue robe staring at them with intense violet eyes framed by long, thick golden hair. The two men instantly recognized her.

"My name is Chora Dane." She said softly with the faintest smile. "If you would come in and have some coffee, I can tell you the other half… The half that has nothing to do with nasty letters, hanging up phones or bad first impressions."

Inuyasha blinked and nodded before he and Shippo followed her into the house before she again closed the door and bolted it. "This is Tanaka Shippo, by the way." Inuyasha began.

Chora smiled and led them to the kitchen where she began to grind beans for another large pot of coffee. "You know who I was." She stated but did not turn to look at their shock as they sat at the kitchen table.

"Who you are, you mean." Shippo interjected but was stilled by the sad look she gave them once she came to join them at the table.

"Forgive the robe and slippers." She said with a hint of amusement. "I don't get out all that much anymore… And Pale Morrigain isn't who I am. Not now. Not ever again. And there's a reason. A very good reason for it… But you'll need to be patient with me."

"We know that Morgan Bain, your promoter and manager, was killed in a horrible accident…"

She met Shippo's eyes with an agonizing look. "He was my brother first… And it wasn't an accident. The US government called it an accident just like they called the massacre of our parents as well as Kagome and San and Rin a government intervention… But that doesn't make the truth of it go away. They murdered my brother and he died in my arms…" She said, steeling herself even as she felt a few tears slip down her face so she could continue. "But I'm getting ahead of myself…"

Inuyasha suddenly had the urge to kick the shit out of Kouga for not doing his research properly and Shippo for not following up. He watched as the beautiful creature stood and poured them each a mug of coffee before returning to the table. "You don't have to…"

"I want to." She murmured. "We never talk about it, the four of us. I want to, but Kagome… She's always trying to be so strong for me. This will be the first time I've ever told anyone what happened who wasn't there to begin with and I want to, so please don't interrupt me." Once they had nodded in response, she began.

"We were all raised together in Northern California. Morgan was our protector and we became more sisters than friends in those early days. What we never knew was that our parents were a part of an underground movement to rectify the 1965 laws that were put into place… The laws that stated if a youkai or faerie removed the inhibitor anklet, they had signed their own death warrant… Many were shot and killed when they were trying to save people, help people with their inherent abilities. Everything was covered up, but my mother and Kagome's father were able to gather documents that would shatter the cover-up that the US government had been perpetrating for decades.

When the four of us girls were between the ages ten and fifteen, the government stormed our homes and killed our parents and the four of us were put into the foster care system. Morgan escaped and changed his name to Morgan Bain. The four of us were taken into the home of a second-generation Japanese American citizen named Kaede. She kept us together and, when Morgan came to see us and check in, she never reported his presence. She'd been raised to respect youkai and faeries and so she kept our secret. We went to college. Kagome and Morgan fell in love and were mated… Everything seemed so perfect and Morgan had plans for us. He wanted us to move here, to Japan, where we could be free to be ourselves without inhibitors or injections to suppress our healing factors… It was a beautiful dream and it all hinged on he and I getting work visas here."

She smiled a sad smile as she noted their shocked and, understandably, upset expressions. "Everything was set… We would have made it here and we would have been happy… And then there was a riot at my last concert. It was, ironically, began by the same underground movement that our parents had led. They discovered I was the Morrigain's hanyou daughter and they wanted to make me an example for peaceful cohabitation between races… And then it got out of hand. Morgan was in the box with Kagome… The stage was being stormed by panicking audience and I couldn't get away. I froze…" She paused and trembled softly before continuing.

"He took off his inhibitor and flew to me and got us to safety. We were nearly to his car when a sniper bullet went through his throat…" She looked at the table and studied the grain of the wood. "We never even saw them… And Morgan bled out in Kagome's arms and mine. He died because he saved my life. They didn't ask questions. They didn't care… So when I tell you that the letter your brother received came from desperation and hurt and a kind of agony I pray neither of you ever experience, I hope you can understand what I mean."

"I understand, now…" Inuyasha responded after a moment to collect his worried and all together guilty thoughts. He looked up and met her gaze with concern. "What I don't understand is why you won't perform any longer."

"I have… Flashbacks when I go outside the house." She said as if she were simply telling them that she preferred her coffee black rather than with milk. "I only answered the door and let you in because, if I know the kind of man Taisho Sesshomaru is, he will do anything to get what he wants and, unless he's informed, such a meeting could be cataclysmic."

"I don't understand… Thrown objects and yelling, yes. But not cataclysmic." Shippo replied with curiosity touching his gaze.

"Kagome's father's line had miko blood in it. Her power was always dormant and when she was mated to my brother, any chance she had at controlling it was lost, but… When she feels threatened bodily or mentally, her power reacts on a low level. It was how she knew that your brother was a full youkai. Her senses became keen when her power caught him staring at her. I don't want to think what will happen if she looses her temper when speaking to your brother."

Shippo shuddered and Inuyasha winced visibly. "Neither do we."


	4. Chapter 4

_**I do not own Inuyasha.**_

4-

She always asked herself the same question. How do you reconcile a life that was stolen from you? A life you gave up your future for? A life you dedicated every part of yourself to having when that life was never realized?

-Six years prior-

Kagome couldn't remember a moment when she hadn't been entirely in love with Morgan Dagda, now known as Morgan Bain. She was certain there had to be one that was devoid of his presence in her heart. Perhaps the first day or two of her life before he and his parents had been introduced to her along with an infant Chora. Perhaps then she had been entirely free of his overwhelming influence over her and her heart, but from the moment she had laid her pale blue, sleepy baby eyes on him, Kagome was certain she had to have been smitten.

He had been a little over fifty at that first meeting but hadn't looked a day over eighteen. He was slightly over six feet tall with long ebony hair that flashed red in the sunlight and the purest black eyes, so dark that his pupil was entirely hidden. She had never met his father. Dagada had been slain shortly after Morgan's conception, however there wasn't a day that Morrigain did not look on her son and see her immortal beloved staring at him with her coloring.

She always had to remind herself that his parents had both been faerie gods before and during the Power Wars. Immortal, all-powerful beings that had walked among man long before man was even aware of their own power. Long before man learned that they could kill them when humanity tired of the youkai and faerie's games as the eternal beings toyed with destiny, hearts and minds with as little care as a child who thoughtlessly broke their toys.

The Morrigain of legend was a far cry, though, from her Aunty Morrigain. The first was a feared and all powerful war goddess who washed the bloodied armor of the slain before each battle. It was said her favor could decide who won and who lost in war and that her cry heralded death for any who could hear her voice. The second was a warm and beautiful woman, perpetually young, who would kiss Kagome's skinned knees and braid her hair back in elaborate styles like the Pictish female warriors of old before weaving a crown of flowers into it. The two did not live in the same world in her mind, but she knew they were one. Just as she knew that Morgan had two aspects to him, though she had only ever witnessed the one side. The side that loved her, cherished her and protected her throughout her life as if she were a promise between him and the ethereal powers that be was the side she had become intimately acquainted with. All faeries had two sides to them. Two aspects of their being that corresponded to the opposite ends of the axis. Their playful nature aside, those two aspects ruled their hearts and actions always and made them as unpredictable as the direction of the wind.

Kaede had explained to her that such temperament was similar to the youkai of her culture. There was the more human aspect that was civilized and believed in such things as emotions, society and the pursuit of power and then there was the bestial aspect that was driven by pure instinct and animalistic drives. When Kagome had asked Kaede why so many youkai and faeries she had met lived mostly in the more human and gentile aspect of their existence, the older woman had simply chuckled and shaken her head.

"It's the anklet they must wear, Kagome. The technology keeps them from their power and that power is where their secondary aspect lies. The government created the anklet to control that aspect, for it was the part of them that they believed we had to fear. It was the part that could kill as well as save and so they created a blanket law to control all youkai and faeries that lived in this country. They enforced the injection to deter from the removal of the anklets by placing fear in their more human aspects. Fear of death is powerful even for their kind."

"But two aspects, Kaede? Two of them coexisting at once within one body?" The thought hurt her head.

"It is not unlike your conscious and subconscious mind, Kagome. They do not exist at once in the way that those two parts of your mind do not hold control over you at the same moment. It is the reason those in power fear that second and more dangerous aspect of the youkai and faeries. When one is all powerful and can cause such destruction with a simple thought, it is hard for humans to trust, for most humans with such power would use it to their own ends in a pursuit for power…"

"And those in power are afraid of losing it, so they've done everything they can to deter the youkai and faeries from taking up arms against them." Kagome finished her thought as her mind grasped the heart of the matter. The countries that made up the Americas were built on the backs of men and women who were either oppressed or had migrated in the pursuit of more power and land and wealth. The mass of people, though not all, who made up the human populations came from either a history of having to fight for what they worked so hard to win or who had stepped foot onto the new soil of the new world with a predisposed sense of entitlement. Since the countries that made up the Americas were the only ones that had not participated in the Power Wars and had remained neutral, the influx of faeries and youkai who wished to remain neutral had been massive and had put those in power on edge. When the ability to trust had finally failed them, they had turned to their only other recourse. Complete control of the cause of their fear. In her mind, Kagome could understand why the Morrigain and her parents and her friends' parents had fought against the control. All faeries and youkai were cut off from a piece of themselves. They weren't whole and that was no more fair than humans having to worry about being caught up in a power struggle or, worse, between two all powerful beings hell bent on killing each other. Still, there had to be another way.

It had been almost a year since she the conversation with Kaede had occurred, and yet the memory was fresh in her mind as she hiked up the narrow path only a few steps behind Morgan. It was her eighteenth birthday and he had promised her a surprise while they were out camping to celebrate. She'd had a party with her sisters and Kaede and her friends, but Morgan could not attend. He hadn't given a reason, but he had set up their camping trip as an apology and sealed her forgiveness with the promise of a very special gift that would remain a surprise until their first night on the trip.

She had graduated high school the month before and had already been accepted to UC Berkeley for the fall semester. She had decided early on that she wanted to dual major in history and computer science. Morgan had been nothing but supportive on her decisions and she was happy for it. His support and love meant the world to her.

"Just a few hundred yards more and we'll be to the clearing, Love." He called back to her and she glowed.

She felt tingly when he called her 'Love.' It was an hour before dusk when they reached the beautiful clearing just off the path. She wondered how long it had taken him to choose the place as they worked together to set up camp before nightfall. After dinner, dousing the fire and securing their food in the trees to protect from bears, they snuggled down into their tent together in the warmth of two down sleeping bags that had been designed to zip together as one.

The lantern still glowed where it sat in the corner. She had never been with anyone the way she knew Morgan wished to be with her that night. Sex was known but still unknown to her. She'd saved herself for him, always knowing somewhere in her heart that it would be him she would belong to and she did so ache to be his. Slowly, he undressed her and then himself. He drew her close and her heart began to pound in her ears so hard she thought her head might explode from the pressure.

A blush overtook her as he smoothed her hair from her face and caressed her form with tenderness and care. "You know that I love you, my Kagome." It was a statement. One she did not need to respond to and yet, she did.

"Yes… And I love you too." She murmured and reached to touch his face. He caught her hand before her fingers could even graze his cheek. She frowned faintly and he chuckled. "What is it?"

"You're so perfect and innocent and pure, Love. I would keep you this way forever."

Her blush deepened suddenly with the intensity and warmth of his gaze. "If you did that, then wouldn't that mean you couldn't ever be with me?" She asked, again betraying her innocence to him. It seemed to amuse him somehow.

"Not necessarily, Love… I want to give you a gift. It is a gift that I may only give once to one who I deem worthy. Very few of my kind can bestow it upon a mortal because of the power it requires and fewer still of those who can because of what it would mean. My mother gave such a gift to Chora's father, for she wished never to see him fade or leave her. She believed that one day she would be free of her bonds as I believe I and Chora shall be in time."

"You mean Japan?"

He nodded and leaned to breathe her in. He seemed fixated on her scent. "One day I'll be free to be myself and so will my sister and I want you with me from now until then and into forever. I want you as more than my mate, tied to me forever and my power to ensure you will survive, damned to death if I were to be killed… And so I wish to give you my immortality. The part of me that deters aging and disease. That keeps me as I am… Is for you, my Kagome. It is my gift to you."

Her eyes began to sting with oncoming tears of joy as well as fear. "What if something happens to you, though? What if I have to go on without you?"

"Shhh, don't be afraid." He murmured and kissed her deeply. She felt like she might swoon with the passion behind his kiss. When he pulled away, the world seemed to spin. He met her gaze and leaned to kiss her brow. "This is my gift to give. I don't want to be without you, Kagome."

"Promise me I'll never be alone… I can face forever if I'm never alone."

He smiled and his eyes winkled as he descended his lips once more to hers. "I promise that you will never be alone, Love."

Their lips met and a rush of light and energy flooded her from him. She cried out and he held her tighter to him, deepening their kiss as the transference ended. Her scent stilled as her cells ceased their march toward death. Imperceptibly, the dead cells of her hair were flooded with life so that each strand became imbued with her life and soul. Any pollutant that had marred her soft scent faded away until she smelled of pure, clean air untouched by the human world. She was his almost entirely. He trembled and moved over her, determined to mark her as his mate. It was the one gift thing that they could not stop with the anklet. The one thing they never thought to include in the disruption of the faeries and youkai abilities. The power to claim and bond forever with their chosen beloveds.

She shuddered and sighed as she felt him move between her legs and then cried out softly as he took her innocence. Even through the pain, there was an overwhelming knowledge that she belonged to him and joy that she would be his forever.

-Six years later-

Would she have let him if she had known she would be forced to live without him? To face forever without him always by her side? He'd never promised she'd always have him. He'd promised that she would never be alone. It was his faerie nature at play. He'd told her what she'd needed to hear to agree.

Years had passed. She'd grown up a bit but she hadn't ever stopped loving him. They planned for children once they made it to Japan. She learned quickly that being immortal meant she had full control over her body in all aspects. She could increase the rate her hair grew and then stop it when it reached the length she desired. She could stop her nails from growing and strengthen them so they never broke or needed to be filed. Acne was long forgotten and her skin was always soft and perfect. She was never sick and did not age beyond the day of her eighteenth birthday. She also learned that she could still her reproductive organs without adverse effects to the rest of her body. Her hormones would keep working, but she didn't ovulate and decided, easily, that she didn't need to have periods again, either. In so many ways it was like a teenager's dream come true.

But, if she'd known that five years later, she'd be left to face eternity alone… Face the death of everyone she loved alone, would she have accepted his gift? It was true that she would never want for companionship. Chora had told her that her scent was so pure and sweet that, if she wished, she could attract any youkai or faerie lover, but that wasn't Kagome's concern. She couldn't tell Chora the real reason she was afraid. She couldn't explain her current condition of definite eternity. It wasn't that she wouldn't have company through her long, so very long, life. It was that any company she might have, including the company she had in the form of her sisters, would fade and die in time. Even Chora would be taken from her in a thousand years or so.

She hadn't thought about the possibility before Morgan had died. She hadn't contemplated what it would mean to watch everyone she loved besides him and, possibly, their children, fade and be reclaimed by the earth. She'd been so young, so innocent… So naïve. In time, she discovered that Morgan's gift to her had put them in the position of definitely needing to leave for Japan. He was aging. Slowly, but he had begun to age. He could tell and, strangely, so could she. Until they made it to Japan and his anklet was removed and the injection neutralized, his healing abilities would not be able to end the progression of time on his body. Chora had to have noticed. With her senses, even only being half faerie, she had to have been able to tell the change in them. She had said nothing of it to Kagome and, in turn, Kagome had never mentioned what had happened. She didn't tell her sisters of her immortality. She never told them the real reason why it was so important they made it to Japan. In time, they would realize the truth, but Kagome couldn't bring herself to say the words even to the present day.

That one day she would have to say goodbye to them all. That one-day, they would fade while she remained ageless and pure. That one day, she would place each of their corpses in the ground and she would have to walk away… Entirely and utterly alone.

------

There was nothing offensive about the scent of graphite and fine paper. The shavings of wood to reveal more of the dark grey tip only added to the soft metallic and woody scent of the two combined and he could find nothing wrong or offensive to stop him from his pursuit. It was why the small studio next to his room that granted him such a spectacular view of the city was littered with black and white pictures of what he saw but could not truly experience. The room was his private sanctuary. The huge bay windows were double paned and heavily insulated at the seems to help cut down on ambient noise and scents that might drift in. The air was filtered from the outside so it carried no scent to his delicate nose and, from a fine and very expensive sound system, white noise was piped in at a low level to help shield his ears from the sounds of the city. The room was his greatest source of delight; for it was here that he indulged in his basic pleasures. His art and his music. In the corner opposite where he sat and drew was a fine baby grand piano. Next to it on the floor was his tuning kit. Every time he sat down to play and write the music in his mind, he would first tune the instrument so it did not offend his perfect pitch.

The room was also the source of his greatest pain. The hours he spent within the walls, even with the careful filtration and insulation, caused his senses to go into overload. The finest equipment and technology could not remove every toxin or scent or sound if he were able to still see the world he could not live in. Had he removed the windows and made it completely sound proof and the air filtered from within his room and house a second time, such would not be the case. But he had wanted his window. He had wanted his view, be damned with the chance that his overloads, most definitely, would be the cause of his ultimate demise. The world had become a wonder in the course of his life. With it came pollution and toxins and sounds that overwhelmed him entirely. Had the world remained, as it was when he was born, he would not suffer as he did. But the world had changed and he marveled at it, coveted any access to it and even welcomed his death if it meant that he was gifted even half a human's life span more just to witness the magic of science and steel.

He looked down at his current masterpiece. The lines were flawless and caught up in the memory he had so perfectly framed in his mind. Life lived in every curve and detail he'd placed, expertly, from the prism of his thoughts. She was so very beautiful. Eyes like the crystal blue of the sky just before dusk. Hair of ebony cascading in a perfect curtain around her angelic face. It was the look she had given him when their eyes met across the crowded club. When she'd chastised him… There was a light in her eyes that the graphite could not capture. He needed blue to capture it. He cursed himself once more for his weakness. He ached to work with another medium. He longed for oil paints or acrylics that yielded the deep rich hues his artwork demanded to take on full life. He had dabbled in watercolors before, but they had only left him wanting and disappointed. Colored charcoal and colored pencils left the same sour taste in his mouth once he completed his work. Even oil-based pastels were too overwhelming with their faint chemical scent for him to use and so he was left with his disappointment. He'd grown used to it. He'd given up on color decades before, but as he looked down at her face, he couldn't help the ache that spread through his abdomen and up into his heart and then his throat.

How could she be the same woman he hated and had tried to crush? How could she be Kagome Higurashi, who he had wanted so desperately to destroy? It seemed like a cruel joke. For a moment, when he'd woken that morning, he'd almost felt hope for a future. He'd almost allowed himself to dream of a life where he could live in the world… With her at his side. Almost… If he could convince her to love him… If she would accept him and be mated to him so their scents would mingle and he could always smell her so his other senses would not overload his body and head with agony… If she lived beside him for as long as he could endure… If, somehow, by the graces, they could sire a child and he could be near it and love it and raise it simply because of a mating bond between them… If only.

For so long he'd pretended that he could live his life alone. He didn't need to love. He didn't need to dream, he only needed to live and be as he was until the day he died. He lied to himself so he could lie to his brother and his pack. And then she'd come into his world and he simply couldn't pretend anymore. But she had been in his life. For over a year, she'd been his game. She'd been the bug he continually crushed between his fingers. All because she had hurt his pride. Because she had ignored his attempts to remedy the situation… Because she had told the truth in her letter.

There had been a lot of nasty things she'd said, but what it boiled down to was he didn't care about the person Pale Morrigain was. He only cared about her voice and art. He only wanted her music… But not for the reason Kagome Higurashi had implied. She didn't know that the music of the woman called Pale Morrigain was the only music he could listen to more than once without tiring of the little inconsistencies of pitch or expression. The woman's voice simply never was out of tune. Her expression was flawless and, for a reason beyond his understanding, every time he listened to her sing in her recordings, he heard something new. He'd tried to exhaust her music in his ears. He discovered it was impossible. He'd even gone through the hassle of going to one of her concerts and, even over the din of the crowd that nearly killed him, her voice remained and seemed fresh in his ears. Yes, all he cared about was getting her under contract for him so he could always have her music as his own, but it wasn't simply for profit. It was because she was a phenomenon for him, just as Kagome was in his mind. Though Pale Morrigain could not still his other senses with her voice as Kagome could with her scent, the beauty of her music was like a bright light in his otherwise bleak existence. He had everything anyone could want at his fingertips, and still he would trade it all simply to walk the streets like a normal man.

He looked back at the picture in his hands and sighed softly. A wistful smile touched his lips. He could forgive her if she said she was sorry for being so cruel and judgmental of him to the degree of not even giving him a chance, but could she forgive him? He didn't know enough of her or her life to be able to answer that question.

"Maru?" The voice of his brother came over the intercom. He stood and pressed the button on the speaker near the door.

"What is it, Inuyasha?"

"We need to talk."

"I'll be right there." He looked once more on the picture of Kagome and then turned to the door of his sanctuary. He walked through his room and then into the living room only to find his brother, Kouga, Shippo and Miroku looking at him with worried gazes. Bile rose in his throat. "Did she decline? Did you not offer enough to her? What is it she wants?"

"Sit down, Maru."

Sesshomaru raised his brow and sat in his usual chair. He looked at his fingers that were still covered in graphite thoughtfully. His brother never used such a commanding tone with him. He wouldn't dare. "Tell me what happened." He said without even looking up at them. He couldn't stand the pity in their eyes.

"Chora Dane was there." Inuyasha said softly and smirked sadly as Sesshomaru looked up with a shocked expression. "Before you ask, it is as bad as Kagome made it out to be to Kouga a year ago. She's agoraphobic Maru, and she refused to sing ever again. She spoke to us through the mail slot before she realized who we were and that you'd sent us. She knows that you were the one that was staring at Kagome in the club last night and, apparently, you've been on Kagome's mind, too… But that's neither here nor there."

His eyes flashed and he fought back the twinge of hope that ached in his chest. "Did you speak to the Higurashi woman?"

"No. I thought it was best to talk to you first. Chora let us in and told us what happened to her and Kagome and Morgan Bain. He was a pure blooded faerie, the son of two faerie gods. He'd mated Kagome and they were in love… And he was Chora's older brother. Their families had been killed by the government for conspiracy when Chora and Kagome and the other two girls that were at the club were only kids. They were raised in foster care after that. At one of Chora's concerts, Morgan took of his inhibitor anklet to save his sister from being trampled when the audience rioted. He was killed shortly later by the government for violating that law that was passed back in '65 to control the youkai and faeries in the US." He met his brother's shocked gaze and sighed. "It's all a clusterfuck, Maru. None of us really checked and, with the media the way it is over there… Morgan changed his name from Morgan Dagda to protect his sister and Kagome. There wasn't much way to trace it and, from what Kouga told me, he and Shippo got what was on general record. What we learned from Chora today wouldn't have been in the public domain or easily accessible…"

"What does this have to do with the synthesis of Kagome Higurashi's scent?" He asked in an attempt to distance his self from the guilt he was feeling. And yet, he couldn't help but feel also a sense of anger. How could he have known? How could any one of them have known? What right had Kagome Higurashi to punish him and rage at him for what they could never have known? And then there was the small voice that was also the source of his faint and dying hope that asked him what right he might have had continuing to harm her for a slight to his pride.

Inuyasha's eyes narrowed and he advanced on his brother before striking him hard enough to bruise. "You fucking asshole! Synthesis? A synthesis of her? Why the hell are we even talking about that when we both know you want the real thing?"

He stood slowly and looked down at his younger brother with rage as a bruise formed on his cheek. "You know nothing of what I want…"

Inuyasha met Sesshomaru's gaze and smiled wickedly. "The fuck I don't. I've been living with you for over a century. I see how you eye the girls I go out with or how you turn when Kouga's near Ayame. I see the jealousy in your eyes when Miroku comes back after one of his conquests and even when Shippo's flirting with a girl online. You know how fucking hard it is to make sure the scent of a woman is off us before we come home just so you won't sulk for the next few days? We do it for you, because, whether you want to hear it or not, you're our friend. You're our pack member and our alpha and, as hard as it is for you to even fathom, we love you as our brother. So when we saw you react to Kagome the way you did, the way your eyes lit up…"

He didn't see the punch coming. The hanyou was on the ground and his nose was bleeding. He looked up at an enraged Sesshomaru and spit out blood before throwing him a cock-sure grin. "So I'm right."

"I hate you." He ground out before sitting again and running his fingers through his hair. He wouldn't look at them. The surprise and satisfaction in their faces were enough to sicken him with embarrassment. He was even embarrassed at the childishness of lashing out at Inuyasha and the retort that had escaped him better suited to a five year old.

"No you don't." Inuyasha replied before crouching in front of him. He waited for his brother to look up at him before he continued. "We can still fix this."

"How? I tried to destroy her." He replied as he felt a disgusting wave of self-pity wash over him.

The hanyou chuckled and grasped one of his brother's hands, smearing the graphite that remained on his fingertips with his blood. "We'll figure that out… But at least now we've got an ally in that house."

"I don't understand…"

"Kagome might hate you and Sango and Rin, the other two girls living there they call sisters, might be a bit overprotective, but Chora wants Kagome to be happy. Just like I want you to be happy. And if there's anything you should have learned by now, it's that there's nothing more powerful that the stubbornness of a hanyou."


	5. Chapter 5

_**I do not own Inuyasha.**_

5-

"Run that by me again, Chora." Her voice was strained and the hanyou did not like the sound of the tension in what was normally such a calm, soothing timbre.

She sighed out and began again while her sisters simply stared at her with incredulous gazes. "Taisho Inuyasha and his business associate, Tanaka Shippo came to the house while the three of you were out working. I let them in for coffee and a chat."

"Taisho. Like Taisho Sesshomaru?" Rin asked. Her normally playful green eyes were dull and angry. Chora nodded. "What the fuck, Chora!? You let that bastard's little brother in here? Why the hell would you…"

"Rin, I love you, but you need to calm down." Chora said softly and closed her eyes. "And you really shouldn't curse. It ruins the façade you work so hard to maintain."

Rin's lip quirked in amusement and annoyance. "He kept us out of Japan for a year, Chora. A year. After your brother was…"

Kagome gave her youngest sister a sharp look and then trembled at Chora's words.

"They never knew that was the case. They didn't know, Rin. How could they have known? The media covered it up, don't you remember that?" She met each of her sister's eyes in turn with warmth and sadness. "Don't you see, it was all just a big mis…"

"If you say misunderstanding, I'm going to kick your ass." Kagome said under her breath. "They could have been more understanding, but as it was, that bastard Kouga, under Taisho Sesshomaru's orders, wouldn't let…"

"That isn't true either, Kagome." Chora said sharply, startling Kagome into silence. Her eyes flashed with her temper as she met azure with piercing violet. "Will you stop? For a minute, will you please just stop? There were mistakes made on both sides. He called eleven times to our home before you sent that letter, Kagome. I remember. You answered the phone from my room several of those times while you were looking after me and I heard his voice. Each time, you never let him speak. You just hung up. He was trying and then you insulted him."

"That didn't give him any right to…"

"What? Be just as petty as you had been to him?"

"Chora…" She felt some part of her heart begin to ache for the part that was missing. She looked to her beautiful, pale sister for sympathy and found warmth within the steel… So much like her brother it made her ache even more. "Morgan was…"

"Morgan was murdered." She said softly and quickly embraced her sister as she began to weep. She'd forced her hand and she'd won, but Chora wasn't so certain she liked winning. She kissed Kagome's cheek and caressed her hair. Rin and Sango moved to them quickly and wrapped around their sisters protectively. "I'm not gonna let you shut down, Kagome." She whispered and Kagome shuddered and sobbed. "You're dying inside and I won't let you leave me. You lived your whole life for Morgan's dreams and Morgan's desires. You never had any dreams of your own and, while that was fine while he was alive, he's gone now and that means you're lost… But you aren't alone, Kagome. You'll never be alone."

"You don't understand… You can't understand…"

"What?" Chora asked, waiting for her sister's truth that she'd known Kagome had been hiding from them all. When she shook her head, Chora sighed and forced Kagome to look at her. "Do you think I don't know already, Kagome? I'm the only daughter of a faerie goddess, and hanyou I may be, but that doesn't mean that I don't know what's going on here. Morgan told me once that all he wanted was to know that you would still be in the world even if he were ever taken from it. He said there was light in you and he was right, Kagome. Pure, beautiful, healing light that has nothing to do with the miko blood in you. You love without reason and forgive without cause and that is beautiful and worth giving eternity to."

"But I don't want it if I have to always lose the ones I love… Watch them fade when I stay the same…" Her heart felt so lost, so torn and strained from loss.

Chora captured her sister's gaze and smiled faintly. A sad, hopeful smile, but a real smile. She leaned and pressed her brow to her sister's and slipped her hands into the long tresses of ebony night. She closed her eyes and sighed. "Oh, Kagome… My beautiful little sister… The world is never fair. We accept with grace what we have been given because there is no other way. I can't promise you what will happen a century from now, but I need you to be open to the possibility of something good happening in your life right now. I need you to let go of your anger toward Taisho Sesshomaru and his business associates…"

"Why?" The words tore her from her easy and comforting place in her sister's warmth. She looked up at Chora's mischievous, dancing eyes and tensed. "What did you do, Chora?"

Sango and Rin looked to their hanyou sister as she tilted her head in a very bird-like manner and slowly blinked her haunting violet eyes. "Taisho Inuyasha is going to bring his brother and business associates to dinner tonight. Here. I've already ordered a very nice faire from a restaurant down town and, because of my propensity for pajamas, they know dinner will be casual." Kagome blinked and fell into a state of shock. Chora smiled deviously. "And, before any of you begin to question why… The man who was staring at you across the club was no other than the hated Taisho Sesshomaru." She reached out and caressed Kagome's cheek. The girl leaned into her sister's touch and trembled with a dawning understanding touching her features. "I'm tired of watching you fade away, Kagome. Hate me later if you want, but I had to try. Morgan would have wanted me to. He did so love to see you happy."

"But I hate him…" She whispered as easy tears stained her cheeks even further.

Chora's lips quirked and she shook her head. "No, you don't. You don't hate Sesshomaru because you don't even really know him. You've focused all your hatred and pain at the world for taking Morgan away from you at him and he doesn't deserve your wrath, Kagome."

"But why… Naraku-sama said that Taisho Sesshomaru was the one who was thwarting every individual attempt we made to enter the country… Every application was denied because he'd paid them all off…"

"Maybe you should give him a chance to explain that, Kagome." Sango's words were steady and her eyes steely as she met Kagome's gaze. "We don't know everything… We can't until he tells us why."

Rin gently ran a hand through Kagome's hair and felt some of her own anger fade. She'd seen the subtle change in Kagome since the night before when they'd gone to the club. Sometimes her eyes seemed far away and, occasionally, Rin caught her elder sister smiling and her eyes sparkling with a long lost hope they'd all almost given up on seeing again. And Rin knew what had put that there… Or, rather, who. Kagome was far too easy to read at times. With all the tension and pain that came with the name Taisho Sesshomaru, the knowledge of who he was had startled Kagome and now… Now she was looking for ways to hold on to her anger and pain. She was struggling to keep hidden behind her loss and rage when all that was left were a few tattered bits to shelter her from the one thing she feared more than losing the people she loved… Letting go and moving on.

"You don't have to be afraid, Kagome." Rin whispered and hugged her sister gently, locking her slender hands around the elder girl's waist. "We'll be with you. We're always with you."

------

"This is not a good idea." He said softly as they turned onto the street where the women lived. He'd memorized the address shortly after Inuyasha told him about the plan for dinner. Kouga would remain at home with Ayame. The less reason for Kagome to lose her head, the better, in his opinion, and it gave the wolves some quality time together. "This is a very bad idea. Hanyous have very bad ideas."

Inuyasha smirked from the driver's seat and met his brother's gaze through the rear view mirror. He was sitting behind him next to Shippo with a very unattractive scowl on his face. "Yeah, yeah. Hanyous are irrational and stupid and have no tact or control over their vulgar speech. Keep it coming, Maru. Get it all out of your system before we pull up. You know I can take it."

"Hanyous also have very little fashion sense and do ludicrous things like wearing pajamas to dinner with nearly perfect strangers. They insist on trying to convince perfectly decent Sesshomarus to also wear pajamas to said dinners with people who hate them… Even if they do smell very good…" His eyes widened and he bit his tongue harshly for even allowing the last part of his rambling to escape.

Inuyasha laughed. Miroku and Shippo had the good sense only to chuckle softly. "Hanyous smell good or are you talking about a blue eyed, raven haired girl you're so certain hates you?"

"I hate you." He growled and leaned back his head, closing his eyes as they pulled up along side the house of the feared Kagome Higurashi. He ignored the other men as they chuckled and again cursed himself for his rather childlike behavior. But he was afraid and nervous and his pride was demanding that he tear this Kagome Higurashi apart… His mixed and overwhelming emotions were enough to chip away at his very well kept control. He'd never been more terrified in his life.

------

She looked at herself again in the mirror. Her long ebony hair had been French braided into two pigtails that fell down her back to her waist with a few long tendrils that had once been bangs hanging around the curve of her jaw to her throat. She was wearing a dark blue, form fitting tank top and a pair of torn up blue jeans and neon green flip-flops. She looked normal, like her heart wasn't churning and cramping in her chest. Unless you knew what to look for. The subtle crease in her brow. The faint lines at the corners of her lips. All signs of tension and worry and fear.

But Chora was right. She'd directed all of her rage and pain at a man she barely knew anything about. A man, who by all accounts, had tried to make it all right after a mistake had been made by one of his associates and she'd spit in his face with her words and actions. But did that give him the right to continue to hurt her? Even not knowing the truth behind her history, behind Chora and Rin and Sango's history, did Taisho Sesshomaru have the right to continue his prideful assault on them from afar like some heartless brat prince in a faerie tale? He didn't… They'd both been wrong and she might even be able to forgive him if he'd ask it of her.

There was just something in his eyes. Something soft and warm and fragile that ached to touch her when they had met eyes across that damned crowded club. She'd never felt that kind of connection with anyone. Not even with Morgan. She had loved him, which was certain. Their love had been one built on time and trust and a perceived destiny that Morgan had deciphered and Kagome had embraced entirely. She'd been so young. She hadn't questioned her lack of question or concern of so recklessly embracing someone else's will. She hadn't ever even considered that there were others who she could love as deeply. Even after his death to the moment when she'd locked eyes with a beautiful stranger only the evening before the present moment, she'd held to the belief that she'd never love again because Morgan had been her destiny and he had been taken away from her. But how could he be the man she'd directed so much misplaced hatred at for so long?

It seemed like such a cruel joke in her mind. She'd gone a full year almost wishing she'd die, only living for her sisters and to protect Chora and then, in one strange moment as she felt his energy entirely focused on her, the pain she'd felt had melted away… She'd given him a show, stemming her guilt for even momentarily letting go of Morgan by promising she'd never give in to the strange feeling that was overtaking her, and then had fallen into his eyes… And she'd lost any control she had over her heart. She'd started to dream again, but her own dreams this time and not another man's. She started to feel again and, when she was still, she could feel her long lost hope and joy resurface… And it frightened her. Because if Sesshomaru had the ability to hurt her so powerfully without even knowing her and the cruelty to extend her pain entirely without regret, what would he do to her if he became close to her? What would happen if she let herself really love him and forgave him and then… When he grew tired of her or annoyed with her, he simply lashed out and hurt her? Only in a much worse and lasting way because he knew her weak spots… She knew she could love him entirely, but could he really ever love her that deeply? She didn't know. She couldn't know not knowing the man.

The sound of the doorbell woke her out of her thoughts and she sighed before standing and walking to the staircase. Everyone else was downstairs. She'd wanted to think and they'd left her alone, though it had taken some coaxing. She walked halfway down the stairs to see a younger, shorter version of the man she knew as Taisho Sesshomaru clad in pajamas and slippers and a robe entering the house and winking at Chora who had a surprised look on her blushing face. Kagome raised a brow as she noticed the puppy ears on the man who had to be Inuyasha's head. Her miko senses flared and so, as the rusty haired kitsune and human monk entered the room, though she doubted the monk's purity, dressed in blue jeans and casual shirts, she was aware of the other presence lingering, though not patiently, and waiting a few steps outside their door.

He looked up and saw her slender, slight form descend the stairs. Her scent had triggered his awareness of her presence first, so by the moment their eyes met, his agony was gone and his eyes were clear. She looked so young, so innocent, but her eyes betrayed her true age. The age of her soul and heart, so battered by life and time and an eternity of rebirth. There was such wisdom and sadness behind those eyes and any fear or anger he'd held for her before seeing her again melted away and he only found himself wanting to soothe her. To save her.

She walked to the door and tilted her head slightly; unaware of the eyes that were on them both, though she wouldn't have cared if she'd realized that she and he were the center of their attention. His eyes were so warm and soft… So full of care and entirely devoid of pity or hate. Her heart warmed in her chest ever so slightly and, without any real knowledge, that part of her that was certain she'd never love again and that she hated this man shattered then split and fell away. Such is the way of illusions when certainty and truth are presented to the heart.

"If you're going to come inside, you should now." She said in a soft voice. The corners of her lips relaxed and her brow lost the faint line that it had held as the tension and fear in her melted away. Some part of her realized she'd lost something, something she'd held close to her as precious and as a shield against the world, but she didn't care. The world was so much clearer from her vantage and she did not mourn its loss.

He felt the faint smile that tugged at his lips and did not fight it. He walked into the house clad in jeans and a nice button down shirt with his long hair braided back. He stood inside the entryway and looked down at her as she closed and locked the door. He waited for her to look up at him and meet his eyes again and, when she did, he was rewarded with a soft smile that touched her eyes. "Perhaps we should have some more formal introductions… I am Taisho Sesshomaru. My brother is Inuyasha and beside him are the kitsune, Tanaka Shippo, and another of my associates, Yamada Miroku."

"And you already know who we are." She murmured with the slightest sound of amusement in her voice. "Would you still like introductions?"

His brow rose slightly. "I know who you are and I recognized Ms. Dane, but I do not know your other two friends."

She merely nodded and motioned to the other two girls who were casting incredulous looks at her. "Sango Sato and Rin Inoue… Our eldest and youngest respectively."

Chora cleared her throat as a heavy silence covered the room. She was certain it even had texture and color to its weight. A rainbow of uneasiness that was nearly stifling. "We were thinking we would eat in the living room… We turned the dining room into a studio for Rin and, well… Turpentine doesn't go well with Italian food."

He smiled inwardly. Even the harsh smells he now knew were present weren't affecting him even slightly so long as he could smell her. He could pin point them now, knowing they were there, but they didn't overwhelm him. They barely even touched him. "That's fine enough, Chora." His brother said softly. Too softly. He looked up and saw a telltale twinkle in the hanyou's eyes and fought back the groan that was building in his throat. Damn him. Damn Inuyasha. His brother was just as smitten as… He crushed the thought. Simply, Inuyasha was smitten with the woman, Chora Dane. He should have known there was another side to Inuyasha's eagerness.

"Kagome, why don't you get everyone settled?" Chora asked with her own twinkling gaze. "Inuyasha, could I get your help on bringing the food in?"

Kagome raised an elegant brow and then smirked. Oh, if her dear sister was going to play these kinds of games, putting her in this position with a man she had hated, who she wasn't sure about yet, she, most definitely, was not going to make it easy for the little raven hanyou. "Why don't I help you, Chora? Or do you want some alone time with the puppy-boy?"

Her violet eyes flashed and widened. A surge ran through her and her cheeks shaded crimson. Oh, if she was going to play that kind of a game, Chora intended on giving her a run for first. Her jaw set as she ignored the eyes on her. "No, not at all, Sister… I just thought one of us could play hostess while the other had some help bringing in everything, so why don't I? And you and Sesshomaru can bring in dinner. Now that's settled, let's go into the living room, shall we?"

She was about to say something. Her hands were balled at her sides and she had something entirely witty to say, but everyone turned on their heels and left her alone with him by the front door. She looked up and noticed his annoyance was just as visible and directed at the group retreating down the hall to the living room. At least she wasn't alone in her feelings. She let out a long sigh and met his gaze when he returned it to her.

"Get the feeling we've been set up much?" She asked, forgetting her shame momentarily.

He smirked and nodded. "It would seem."

She sighed and motioned for him to follow her as she entered the kitchen. Bags were placed haphazard onto the table smelling of one deliciousness or another. She walked to the cupboard and began counting out plates and glasses and then paused. Her mind raced for words. He was standing in the doorway of the kitchen, waiting for something from her and she simply couldn't think of anything to say. No, she could say many things and none of them were nice. She decided to be diplomatic.

"I'm fairly sure right now you're waiting to see if I'm going to be spiteful toward you or cordial. I'm sure you're waiting for me to say something and now I have." She turned her eyes on him and noted the quirking brow. "In polite conversation, you'd be required to say something in response."

"This is polite conversation?" He asked with the faintest note of amusement. "Alright… Then what do you suggest I say?"

Her jaw tightened slightly. "Don't you know how to be polite?"

"Of course, however, you are baiting me. You are trying to decide what kind of a man I am through conversation that dances around your true intent." He replied in a controlled tone, though his eyes had narrowed and sharpened. "Why don't you ask me the question you really want the answer to."

He wasn't asking a question. He was telling her to explain herself first, before he gave her an answer. She felt her anger begin to boil to the surface again. "You know what I want to ask, so why don't you just give me the answer."

His jaw tensed and he raised a brow. "Because I want to hear the question from your lips."

"Because you want me to brake first and I won't do it! Why in the goddess' name did you come here if you intended on being so obstinate?"

"Why did you invite me inside if you intended to do nothing but avoid the true matter between us for the course of the evening?"

"I was trying to be polite!"

"So was I!"

They stared at each other for a full moment, their eyes locked and their stances combative. In the whole of that eternal span of momentary tension, Sesshomaru could not decide whether to strangle the fiery woman who stood across from him or to gather her up and kiss her. The simple dichotomy of emotion was enough to knock him out of his thoughts and back into reality. He studied her and noted the faint line in her brow and how her eyes were so clear and yet so broken at once. He could see the jagged, hurt parts of her through the crystal blue as well as the sure, steady space that was her center. He could almost taste the ache within her. It was enough to soften his intentions, but not enough to deaden his resolve. He would not be caught in indecision and uncertainty any longer. He needed to know if there was any chance for forgiveness, he was only uncertain if he knew how to ask her for it.

"Do you intend to stare at me from your stance all night?" He asked in a less than gentle tone.

"If I have to."

He sighed and ground his teeth. "I did not know of the reasons behind your sister's retirement from her musical career. None of mine did, either…"

"Don't make excuses for Kouga. I know that it wasn't your idea or your will that broke the contract."

"I tried to tell you as much…"

"An excuse is an excuse…"

"If you had only let me speak to you on the matter then…"

"I couldn't stand the thought of even hearing your voice for a second, what makes you think I'd want to have a conversation with you?" Her words were acidic and he felt their burn deeply.

"And what would you have had me do? Send a letter begging your forgiveness for a fault not my own when a simple and short conversation might have remedied the situation?" He noted as she flinched from his words. "I was trying to be expedient. I would have resorted to such a means in due course, however, I found reason not to."

"That letter came from anger… I…"

"You what? Slammed the receiver down on me eleven times without even giving me a moment to speak before you took out all of your rage on me? Who had no blame in your situation or the death of your mate?"

"You son of a bitch!" Her eyes flashed with rage and he instantly regretted his words. She had barely spoken above a whisper, and yet her words were cutting and heated. She met his eyes with a kind of agony he'd never witnessed before. It came from the ache within her. The ache he only wished to soothe away, and yet, for the life of him, he could only find means to irritate and injure further. "You have no idea what they do to his kind… To Chora's kind there. You don't know what it's like to see the people you love only half of who they are, trapped and outcast on the fear of death! You can't know. You and your brother are the same as they were and yet you'll never understand what they endured… I barely understand it myself. I watched him… The fear in his eyes as he saw her being caught up in that avalanche of people. But he didn't care… He didn't care if he died, he just couldn't think of a world without her…" She shuddered and whimpered as hot tears seared down her cheeks. She looked up at his eyes and saw something there; something soft and suddenly she hated him even more for pitying her. "But I have to live in the world now without him… Forever without him… That's something you'll never understand."

"I'm sorry."

"No!" She cried out, her voice breaking before she launched out and fisted her hands onto his chest as hard as she was able, pounding over his breastbone before drawing back harshly. "I don't want your pity!"

He winced at the strength of her attack, both physically and emotionally. Her miko powers had burnt slightly into his skin, but he knew she had no control over them. They were running off the pain she was feeling and the rage. He had to make her understand him. He grabbed her by the shoulders and shook her, ignoring the jolt of her energies as they burnt his palms. "I do not pity you." He snarled and met her fierce eyes with a dark expression. "I do not pretend to understand your pain. I cannot begin to understand it. Your whole family was taken from you except your sisters and him. Before your very eyes. And then he, your beloved, the man who owns your heart still, was stolen from you. Forever. How could I possibly understand? There is nothing I could ever say to make it better for you. I am not sorry for that… I had nothing to do with that."

"Then why…" She was stunned at the look in his gaze and the gentleness in his words even if they were spoken in such a harsh tone. She couldn't understand.

"I'm sorry for what I did in spite, Kagome." He said softly as his eyes warmed and watched her confusion fade. "Your letter hurt me and I lashed out. I tried to destroy you without even knowing you… And it was a mistake I can never amend and will regret forever. I should have tried again… I should have helped you rather than hurt you, and for that I am eternally sorry."

It was so hard to breathe. The tears wouldn't stop. She barely knew this man who still held her fast and close to him and yet she trusted him enough to weep away the agony of years in front of him. She gently leaned into him and shuddered as he tentatively wrapped his arms around her. She clung to him and sobbed for what seemed like forever and he never said a single word to her. He simply held her. "I'm sorry, too… For hurting you. For not giving you a chance."

"May I have the gift of a second chance, then?" He asked in a whisper as he looked down at her ebony crown while still cradling her tightly to him.

She looked up and smiled a small but warm smile that flooded her gaze meant only for him. It sent his heart racing. "No, but I'll give you your first."


	6. Chapter 6

_**I do not own Inuyasha.**_

6-

"Rin… Just back off, ok?" Chora again pushed her youngest sister back away from the door where she, Inuyasha and Shippo were standing to listen in on the varying levels of heated conversation going on in the kitchen.

"Damnit… I want youkai hearing." The frenzied little chipmunk-girl whimpered before slipping another peppermint in her mouth.

"How many was that?" Sango asked with a raised brow as she watched Rin begin to practically vibrate from an oncoming sugar high.

"I lost track half a bag ago." She murmured before standing and beginning to pace.

Shippo stifled a laugh as he watched the cute little human girl being chided by her elder sister. If this went well, maybe they could have some fun together at an arcade or something after overdosing on Pixie sticks. She really did look like she'd be a ball of fun if he could get the nerve to ask her. He was good with women online, but face-to-face never went very well.

"She's crying…" The soft concern in Chora's voice caught Sango's attention.

"What? Why? What did he say?" Her voice was anything but calm. She nearly jumped out of her skin when a warm hand touched her shoulder. She turned and met her soft brown eyes with indigo and trembled.

"Calm down, ok? We need to let them work this out." Miroku said in a soft, soothing baritone voice.

Sango nodded and looked back to her sister to see the faint, sad smile playing at her lips. Shippo and Inuyasha were also smiling in a fairly melancholy way. "What is it?"

"He actually said it first…" There was a kind of awe in Inuyasha's voice as well as a hint of pride.

Chora's smile brightened. She reached out without thinking and took Inuyasha's hand to squeeze it. "He apologized to her… I think it's going to be alright…"

Rin's eyes darted to the two hanyou's entwined fingers and her eyes got wide. She lost all control over herself and her voice and pointed at them. "Kagome wasn't being mean! You two DO like each other! YOU DO!!!"

"Baka…" Inuyasha ground out.

Chora pulled back immediately and swooped to her younger sister before covering her mouth and wrapping an arm around her waist. "Mei Mei, you need to be quiet…" She whispered harshly into Rin's ear. "Otherwise you're little deduction is going to ruin what's happening in the kitchen."

Rin nodded and then frowned when Chora didn't release her. She sighed and simply waited for her hanyou sister to decide to let her go. Chora's attention was on the worried expressions of Inuyasha and Shippo that were slowly relaxing. In her haste to silence Rin, she'd missed what Kagome had said in response. "What is it?"

"She yelled at him and then… He said something more. I couldn't really tell over Rin." Shippo returned softly. Inuyasha nodded in affirmation.

After several moments of hearing her sobbing, muffled somehow further than simply by the closed door of the living room, Shippo's eyes widened. He knew Inuyasha hadn't heard Sesshomaru's request after Kagome's words of apology. He turned from the door after Kagome's final words and sat heavily on the couch. Inuyasha's brow rose as he watched the kitsune. There were now the more audible sounds of plates being stacked and silverware and glasses being gathered coming from the kitchen.

"What was it, Shippo? I couldn't really hear what they said after that." Inuyasha asked carefully.

Chora released the calmer Rin as they all began to move to the couches to sit and await the food being brought. "What is it, Shippo?" She asked hesitantly.

"He asked her for a second chance… And she said no, but that she'd give him a first chance…"

Miroku smiled lecherously. "Why would that make you so somber, kiddo?"

Sango raised her brow slightly and laughed lightly to herself. "We should be happy for the change."

"Yeah, but… There's more to this and we all know it. Well, Inuyasha and Miroku and I know it…"

"Shippo, what don't we know?" Rin questioned as she sat cross-legged on the floor across from the kitsune.

Inuyasha scowled as Shippo's words hit him. Miroku only frowned. "My brother…" He listened, judging where the pair in the kitchen were in gathering the food and flatware and drinks before he continued. "He's ill. He has been his whole life. It's a genetic fluke, one of the reasons youkai and faeries were banned from mating a century ago… Because kids like my brother were being born. His sense of taste, smell and his hearing are all so keen and sharp that, when they get overwhelmed, he has massive amounts of pain. Just within the last decade or so he's been having major seizures because of his condition. The doctors say it will kill him in time."

"Goddess… Kagome has to know this…" Chora began, but the look of the hanyou across from her silenced her.

"He'll tell her. It's his to tell her… We shouldn't have even said anything, but here it is. You girls know… So here's the rub." Inuyasha drawled out with a rather pained expression. "What caught his attention in the club was her scent. It stilled his senses… She stilled his senses and, until she was gone, his pain ended. Up until a few hours ago he'd been trying to convince himself he could just have her scent synthesized so he could keep on living, even if it was a half life, but we saw the same things in him you all were seeing in Kagome. They're smitten with each other, they just aren't ready to move on with a life together. They need to ease into it after all the shit they've lived through."

"But doesn't that mean that he just wants her for her scent?" Sango asked with a weakness suddenly overtaking her usually sure voice.

"No." They had expected either Inuyasha or Shippo to retort such a notion, but it had been Chora. The raven hanyou was smiling. She looked at her sisters with a barely contained excitement. "He recognizes her… It's hard to explain, Sango, but… It's something my mother told me. Humans even do this on a certain level. Unknown to them, they pick up on pheromones that are compatible with their own, that compliment their own. Scientists have even proven that humans respond to scents in this way, they just don't realize it in themselves. Hanyou and youkai and faeries have a much more developed sense of smell and so, when they come across one who is compatible with them, they pursue them. Since Sesshomaru's sense of smell is so overdeveloped, it makes sense that he'd be very picky what female he let near him… Even other males."

"Matches are easy enough to find, but perfect matches are rare." Shippo murmured as his eyes settled on Rin for an instant before flitting away from her sharp gaze. "For Sesshomaru… A perfect match is…"

"Unthinkable. Miraculous, even." Inuyasha put in softly. They were approaching. If Sesshomaru had heard them discussing his malady, he'd have been in the room long before to silence them, so it was safe to say he was entirely focused on Kagome. "Look, they're coming right now, so we have to end this conversation, but… Rin, Sango, trust me. He won't hurt her. He won't pressure her. He's falling for her because of her or else he'd never have apologized to her just then. He isn't using her."

Rin's lower lip trembled and she nodded softly. "Promise?" She asked the puppy eared hanyou.

He smirked at her innocent look and nodded once. "You have our word on it."

The door opened and Kagome and Sesshomaru walked in, laden with food, drinks, plates and eating utensils. The others were up and helping without them even having to ask for assistance. Kagome's eyes fell on the upset look on her youngest sister's face and frowned before approaching her.

She reached out a finger and touched her lower lip. "Mei Mei? What's the matter?"

Rin's eyes widened suddenly. She hadn't realized she was still pouting. "I.. Um… Sango took my bag of peppermints away!" She said and then feigned weeping.

Kagome rolled her eyes and shook her head. "You hyperactive, psychopathic chipmunk. I'm glad she did. You were a quarter of the way through the bag before they got here!"

"She's down to half now." Sango said, thanking every deity she knew for Kagome so easily buying Rin's lie.

"Oh, for pity's sake! Rin!"

"I was nervous, ok!?" She cried out sharply. She was still feeling the buzz, which meant she had little to no control over her mouth.

"Nervous?" Sesshomaru frowned slightly before unconsciously sitting next to Kagome on the couch.

"Well, yeah! What planet are you from, anyways? You guys hated each other up until about fifteen minutes or so ago! Now you're all cutesy and sitting beside each other and forgive…" She blurted out and then covered her mouth when the taiyoukai and her sister's gazes hardened at once. "Oh shit…"

"You were listening at the door?" Kagome asked, irritation touching her tone. "What are you, five?"

"Mental age… She's legal, I mean… She… Fuck…" Sesshomaru's eyes were on him instantly when he moved to stand beside the cute little bundle of nerves. The kitsune hadn't anticipated having two set of very intimidating eyes focused on him. Very angry, intimidating eyes. "K-kagome… Sesshomaru, ok… Listen…"

"This Sesshomaru is always listening, Kit." He said through gritted teeth. He tilted his head just slightly before sighing and leaning back in his seat. "It was a private conversation, Inuyasha. I know you care for my welfare, as Chora undoubtedly cares for Kagome's, as does all her sisters, but don't you think that your actions were somewhat… Infantile?"

Kagome's lips quirked faintly and her eyes danced. "Fairly eloquent reiteration."

"I am glad you approve." Replied the inuyoukai as he ran a hand through a bit of his long silver hair.

Chora raised a brow in amusement. "So you're friends now?"

Kagome blinked and looked to Sesshomaru who had one brow raised. "Are we friends?"

"I do not recall the word 'friends,' merely that we are giving each other a chance. A slate clean of the past. Friendship implies trust and I doubt either of us yet trusts the other."

"No offense, of course."

"None taken, Kagome." He replied softly with the shadow of a smile.

"So… You aren't friends, but you're giving each other the chance to become more?" Rin asked slowly. Her head was beginning to pound and she was feeling rather ill. Between her sugary breakfast and all the peppermints she'd eaten, she was beginning to get light headed.

"Yes, Rin. Baby, sit down and we'll eat. You're screwing your blood sugar again." Sango said, leading her sister to a chair while Chora filled a plate for her.

Rin took it gratefully. "Sorry… Too long before sugar bursts."

"Uhu, or maybe you're old enough now that your body doesn't appreciate the shit you're doing to it." Kagome said gravely as she watched her youngest sister maneuver a fork full of chicken alfredo into her mouth with a shaky hand.

Rin scowled as she chewed slowly and swallowed. "Goddess forbid I'm ever that old. I'd rather die in a horrible accident than face that. Hmm, maybe I should take up some iffy drug to get my highs and then OD when I start getting gray… Stop looking at me like that!"

The absolutely horrified looks on her sister's faces were one thing. The upset in their guest's eyes and expressions almost hurt, especially the kitsune who was looking at her over a set of green techno glasses that just made his effervescent green eyes all the greener. They almost glowed.

"That's not even funny, Mei Mei." Sango said lowly before sitting next to her younger sister.

"I'm sorry." She murmured as she began poking at her dinner. She was suddenly at a loss of appetite.

Kagome managed a faint smile and stood. "I think I need to go to bed… I'm really sorry. I don't mean to leave everyone, it's just…"

"Mei Mei, don't." Chora pleaded softly as her raven-haired sister made her way to the door. She could almost feel her sadness and knew the others could as well. She took her sister's hand and met deep blue eyes with violet. "She didn't mean it. Don't let a stupid joke get to you."

She looked away, refusing to turn her eyes to the room that was staring at her. Her sisters understood. She knew that now, but the men… They couldn't know. She didn't want them to know. She squeezed Chora's hand and released it. "I'm sorry."

Chora cursed under her breath in Gaelic once the door was closed and her sister was walking up the stairs.

"Chora, I didn't mean…"

"Just stop, Rin." She met her little sister's gaze with meaning. "I love you more than life, you know that. And so does Kagome. And I don't mean to embarrass you in front of company, but you're twenty-one. Start acting like it."

"I… Don't want to intrude on what has to be private, but what just happened?" Miroku asked with a curious look gracing his features.

"It's…"

"Private." Chora finished for Sango, giving her elder sister a dangerous look.

"Is it because she's immortal?" The monk asked, startling all three sisters from their dark thoughts. He smirked faintly at the surprise in Sesshomaru, Inuyasha and Shippo as well. "You're wondering how I should know when everyone with youkai or faerie blood in this room couldn't tell, and you're right to be curious. She's got miko blood in her, correct?" He continued when the sisters nodded, their curiosity intensifying. "I'm a monk, fully trained. My gifts and sensitivities manifested when I was barely out of diapers. They had to train me or else I would have purified the energies of every youkai or faerie near me during a fit of temper. Kagome, no doubt, is a dormant power. She always will be since she was mated to a faerie. Any chance she had was killed when her energies were flooded with his, with Morgan Bain, or Morgan Dagda's energies. But when they faded from her life force when he passed, her life force would have returned to its state when she was still… For lack of a better, more delicate term, pure. But they aren't. Her energies are entirely stilled. She is stilled. She will always be as she is and was that very night. If Sesshomaru or Inuyasha or Shippo had known her before her change, they'd be able to tell as I'm sure Chora could, but we do not have such a benefit… Except that I can sense her life force. That's how I know."

Chora walked to a chair and sat heavily, her eyes focused on the floor. "Morgan gave her his immortality. He wanted her in the world if he was taken from it, so he gave her his most precious gift. His eternity… Yes, that's why. It's hard enough for her to think of Rin and Sango and even me dying in enough time, but for any one of us…" She met Rin's guilty gaze, but couldn't fault her too much. The girl had only learned the truth earlier that day. A few hours earlier, really. "To go prematurely… To want to go prematurely has to be…"

"Terrifying." Sesshomaru whispered as he, too, studied the floor.

Inuyasha's gaze shot from the pretty little raven hanyou to his brother and the two siblings shared a meaningful look. Sesshomaru understood because, of the two of them, he should have lived forever. He should have feared the death of his younger brother and being left alone, but it was, in fact, the other way around. "Took the words." He murmured with a faint smile.

Sesshomaru took a plate and slowly, methodically, placed a little bit of each dish, including desert, onto the fine ceramic finish. He copied the process once more and then grabbed two forks. He slipped two cans of soda into his pockets and walked to the door.

"Maru?" Inuyasha called out with faint amusement.

The inuyoukai looked to his half brother in question. He held one plate in his hand and balanced the other on the same arm as he opened the door. "Do you expect I will waste a chance at finding her good side after so diligently testing her worst? You should know better, little brother."

Miroku raised a brow and smirked as Sesshomaru turned and closed the door, once again leaving them alone in the living room. "Let's just keep our fingers crossed, shall we?" He asked once he was certain his friend and alpha was far enough away.

"This is going to take more than luck." Sango murmured as she poked at her pasta.

Inuyasha and Chora met gazes and shared an unspoken understanding. Luck had nothing to do with it.

------

There was the softest knock at her door. She trembled and looked up from her damp pillow. Her eyes were puffy and red. Her hair was disheveled and free from the braids. She knew Rin was just being Rin. She wasn't watching her tongue, but Kagome still didn't want to see anyone. "Please, I just want to be alone."

"I will leave you alone, however I will not leave you to starve."

She was jolted from her self-pity by the rich, soft tones from behind the door. She blinked and sat up. She smoothed her hair and stood slowly. By the time she reached the door, she had cleaned her face with tissues, though she knew anyone could tell she'd been crying, and opened the door enough to peek out at the tall Inuyoukai who stood waiting for her with a plate in one hand. His other arm was hidden behind his back. She raised a brow slightly as she took in the carefully filled plate and his bulging pockets. "You brought me dinner?"

He nodded. "Carelessness does not mean you need to starve."

She looked up sharply and met his eyes. She opened the door a bit more and her lip trembled at the warmth in his gaze. "What do you know?"

"What Miroku deduced, Kagome. Not what your sisters told."

"I don't understand…"

"Miroku is a monk. Fully trained. He could sense your aura and so revealed what he knew. Your sisters' eyes only confirmed."

Her head spun slightly and she gripped the jam with one hand as she held the knob knuckle-white with the other. More tears slipped down her cheeks unbidden and she wondered again why it was so easy for her to feel and let her emotions show around him… This man who was barely more than a perfect stranger. "I… I don't…"

He frowned and put down the plates on a nearby hallway table and moved nearer to her. He reached out and pushed some of her dark hair from her face carefully. He found himself rewarded when she unconsciously leaned into his touch. "Let me in, Kagome. Please."

"Why do I feel so safe with you?" She asked in a broken whisper. Her eyes betrayed confusion and fear, but not of him. She was far more afraid of herself.

"Some things we can only share the full brunt of with a stranger." He breathed, catching her fractured blue gaze with his broken gold. "Let me in, Kagome. We'll eat and talk and maybe ease each other's pain as even our best beloveds cannot."

She trembled and nodded. Her eyes fell on the second plate and she laughed a sad, small laugh. "High hopes?"

"Not so high that my fall would be broken painfully… I understand the need for solitude."

She moved from the door as he picked up the plates again and entered her room. She closed the door quietly and watched as he sat the plates on her desk before removing two sodas from his pockets. She tilted her head in a very Chora-like mannerism. "How do you do that?"

He looked up questioningly. "What have I done?"

"I… You seem to understand me without me having to… Explain anything at all."

He shrugged and handed her a fork. "Take your pick, Kagome."

She walked across and examined each plate. They were nearly identical, however, one had slightly more tiramisu than the other. She picked it up and noticed his small smile. "I assume you meant that one for you?"

"On the contrary." He replied, but there was laughter behind his words. They sat on the floor across from each other and ate slowly. He savored each bite and relished in the tastes as, for once, they did not entirely overwhelm his tongue.

She watched him as he ate. She'd never seen anyone savor anything so completely nor witnessed the kind of wonder he took in the scent and flavor of each bite. After several long moments of silent eating and her overwhelming curiosity, she found herself needing to ask a question. "How keen are your senses?"

He looked up sharply, and she caught a look of defensiveness that was quickly squelched. He swallowed his mouthful and paused a moment before continuing. When he finally spoke, his words were as layered with history as hers had been heavy with pain when they'd spoken in the kitchen. "I was born about a century ago to two pure bred inuyoukai parents… I was one of what has been called the 'broken generation.'" When her eyes flashed with recognition, he continued ruefully. "They loved each other. They didn't know their love could possibly curse their son. And then, shortly after I was born, they discovered that my sense of hearing, taste and smell were so acute that they were very nearly crippling. My mother died of her own will shortly after my own birth, she was so riddled with guilt and my father… My father cared for me as only an entirely devoted parent could. Shortly thereafter, he mated Inuyasha's mother. After the death of my father and step-mother, my brother became a protector of sorts…"

"But the world isn't… As pure as it was before." She murmured. Their eyes clashed in understanding and he found himself as bathed in her warmth as she had been in his. Not of sympathy or pity, but a warmth of mutual empathy and care. "It must be hard… Painful."

"There are not words." He said in a simple, no-nonsense tone. "There are few things and people in this world I am able to tolerate for longer than momentary increments. My pack… Inuyasha, Miroku, Shippo and your much-hated Kouga are some of the few… And Chora's voice. You were correct in your letter on only one thing."

She winced at his mention of her letter. "What was that?"

"I wanted Chora under our label because hers is the only song I have ever heard that is so pure and entirely refined that I find myself lost within the music… Most music, songs, I am only able to tolerate once. Twice at most. On a daily basis I still listen to her songs. In the very basic sense, I was being selfish. I didn't care if she never made another piece of music, but I wanted to be able to say that her songs, her voice was in some ways my own… I am sorry if that seems monstrous."

She closed her eyes a moment and then opened them. She focused on her half emptied plate with a bemused smile. "You have so much, Taisho Sesshomaru. You have huge monetary assets… So much that you could have anything you ever wanted…" She glanced up, finally, and again met his eyes. "Except the only thing you've ever really wanted… Normalcy. Am I correct?"

He blinked and then a slow, sad smile slipped into his expression. "Finally we begin to understand each other…"

"So what was it?" She asked softly. There was a bit of a chill to her voice when she spoke. "When I walked into the club, what part of me caught your attention so greatly that you couldn't stop staring at me? It couldn't be my taste." She laughed with mild bitterness at the discomfort in his gaze. His eyes cast down and she could have sworn she saw the faintest touch of guilt in his features.

"A truth for a truth?" He almost pleaded and she felt a faint tightness in her chest. She hadn't meant to be cruel.

"Yes." She whispered with a renewed gentleness.

He looked up and studied her face, as if trying to memorize her. As if he was afraid she'd vanish once he told the truth. "It is your scent… It stills… everything. I… Live in pain, Kagome, and you still that. I do not care what your sisters hope for this meeting, nor what my pack hopes… I hope for nothing except for your friendship. I barely know you… You asked me how you are so able to feel safe with me. I do not know the answer, only that perhaps it is the same reason that I am only at peace and out of pain when I am with you. I have ceased trying to understand this."

She felt hot tears again slip down her pale cheeks and she trembled visibly. She reached out hesitantly and traced his jaw with delicate fingers and he, as she had before, leaned into the touch. "A truth for a truth… You can ask me anything."

"There are so many questions I might ask… But none I need the answer to yet."

She chuckled and blushed faintly before drawing away from him. "You can hold into it if you want to."

He smirked and studied her carefully. "I will… So long as there will be another chance to ask."

"Do you want to see me again?"

"Do you?"

Her smile warmed again as did his gaze. "I know I don't want to be perfect strangers."

"That's enough for now."

"For now."

------

He spun the coin once again on the surface of his desk and watched the twirling of the flashing metal. Across from him sitting on the plush leather couches of his home office were his older youkai half cousins, Kagura and Kanna, the witch-miko Tsubaki who secretly prolonged her youth by feeding off illegal refugee American youkai and faerie and the immortal miko, Kikyo, who had sold her soul to a dark demon in the feudal era for eternity. All four he had bedded at least once and each had their own specific talent for making men weak. Every man they had set their eyes upon, they had made their own personal sugar daddies without so much as the bat of their long lashes. Every man except the men he had set them on most recently. Sesshomaru and his pack. It disgusted Naraku Onigumo beyond words. All he wanted was a small fissure of influence in the affluent corporation. All he wanted was access to the contacts and control that the immortal inuyoukai and his associates had at their fingertips. All he wanted was an in so he could stretch out his tendrils of influence until he was able to topple and consume what the Taisho brothers and their partners had worked so hard to build. It seemed like a reasonable dream. So why wasn't it coming true?

"You're like a petulant child, Oni." Kagura noted as she watched her younger cousin again spin the coin before him. "Just accept that maybe you've set your eyes too high this time and go about this the more conventional route."

"Even with the conventional route, I will never be able to gain a majority hold on their stock unless one of you manages to bed and mate one of the available four partners." He said through gritted teeth. He only had one victory to his name over the egotistical bastard that was Taisho Sesshomaru. He'd bought Chora Dane and her sisters and he wasn't letting them go. Not unless he got what he so desperately wanted. He was simply waiting for Sesshomaru to realize what he had held in his arena. Hopefully the Pale Morrigain would be enough for the inuyoukai to bow slightly and give Naraku the in he needed to begin his take over. A gambit, however, was always nice to have. He was only hoping Chora Dane would be such a gambit. A final, devastating gambit. Once the game the sisters were creating was put on the market in the next six months, Sesshomaru would be more than aware of what he had lost due to carelessness and pride.

Kikyo stood and sauntered across the room. She reached out her hand and slammed it down on the coin, stopping its spin flat. She met the ruby gaze of the hanyou across the desk from her and smiled seductively. "You know his weakest link in the five he calls his pack. It is the monk, Miroku."

"Yes, and he is a monk. As lecherous as he is, he knows what you and Tsubaki and my dear cousins are, it seems… And he is not tempted."

"So we employ someone else who might tempt him…"

"We aren't the way."

He looked away from the deep, hollow brown eyes of Kikyo to his pale cousin, Kanna, and her voiding black gaze. She was looking off into space, as usual. She, like Kagura, was a product of forbidden breeding several decades after pureblooded youkai and faeries were asked not to breed together. Kagura had only been born with a mental instability that made her attention span and sanity levels exceedingly decreased from the norm. Most only mistook her for flighty and carefree at first meeting. It was only later that they noticed. Kanna, however, had been born the youkai version of an albino. She was highly affected by sunlight and her skin burned easily. She also possessed a distance from reality that made her both innocent and frightening at once. It was one of the main reasons he favored her so greatly. "What is it, my sweet cousin?"

She turned her dark eyes onto him and tilted her head. "The Higurashi woman was there… At the club last night. With her sisters, Sango and Rin. I recognized them from your first meeting with them. Kagome caught Sesshomaru's attention. There was energy between them… So bright I could feel it. We are not your way. They are your way."

He smiled a dark, malevolent smile and beckoned the pale girl to him. She stood and walked to his side. She was slight but womanly. Grown enough to not be mistaken for a child, but if he pretended… "You are so precious to me. I am glad I will not have to share you."

Pale, delicate fingers traced over his features. He chuckled and gathered her long white hair in his fist before he drew her lips to his. Her mouth opened so welcomingly, so willingly, and he devoured her slowly, savoring every sigh and moan that escaped her tiny throat.

The night would end well for Naraku Onigumo.


	7. Chapter 7

_**I do not own Inuyasha.**_

7-

She stared at herself in the mirror with an incredulous gaze. How had she been convinced to do this, again? Oh, yes… Rin had pouted and pleaded, Sango had promised to bake her almond cookies and Chora… Chora had tricked her. But, then again, what did she expect from a raven hanyou? Hell, she had been mated to Morgan. She should have been prepared for a familial tendency toward sneakiness. Even her Auntie Morrigain had played off Kagome's oh-so-very-fun gullible streak early on… Really, she should have seen it coming.

Three nights before, she had walked to the top of the stairs with Sesshomaru to say goodbye near midnight. They'd talked most of the night about life, their history, everything except work and anything remotely depressing. They'd had enough depressing to last a lifetime and so it was a mutual, silent understanding. She'd said goodbye to him and, in a sudden rush of thoughtless want, she'd embraced him and he returned the hold gently. The others were waiting for him downstairs patiently. They couldn't see the closeness that the pair was sharing, and yet they were waiting as unobtrusively as they possibly could under the circumstances.

"Shall I call or will you?" He had breathed into her ear and she had smiled softly against his neck. He could actually feel the upturning of her lips.

She pulled back slowly and met his eyes before reaching out to trace his jaw with gentle fingertips. "I'll call."

He had leaned into her touch with a halfway, lopsided smile and then had nodded. "I will be patient."

He had been patient and Kagome had been… Indecisive. Why in the hell had she taken the ball into her court? She hated having the ball! But it had seemed like the thing to do at the time. She had control. She so desperately needed control over something. And so, for three days, she had buried herself in her work for Naraku-sama, all the while conscious that her sisters were watching her like a hawk. Like they were waiting for something. Like they were crouching, ready to spring every time she came within an arm's reach of the phone. And then, on the third day, Rin had walked into the kitchen while she'd been reading the news with that horrible pout on her lips. She'd looked at her decadent confections next to a very dark, rich pot of newly brewed coffee and had bypassed it for a healthy bran cereal and a small glass of orange juice. Needless to say, Kagome was distressed.

"Mei Mei, what's the matter? Is your tummy aching?" She asked with genuine concern and absolutely no sarcasm.

"Yes." She replied with the faintest whine. "I'm nervous and stressed and worried."

She moved her chair over to sit next to her sister. "About what?"

"You." She said with a heaviness that startled Kagome. She'd looked up with glistening eyes and a quivering lip. "I know we weren't supposed to spy, but you were at the top of the stairs with him and Shippo could hear you without trying and he ICQed me and told me what you'd said later that night. So why haven't you called him yet? You two seemed to get along so well once you got all that crankiness out of the way and I thought… You're mopey now. Mopier than usual and tense and it's bringing me down, Jie Jie. I can't even draw."

Kagome sighed and shook her head and closed her eyes. "I'm just… I'm sorry, Mei Mei. I'm not used to being the one who pursues."

"But you're the one who said you'd call!"

"I know, but…"

"But… But… Kagome, you know you only said that so that, on some subconscious level, you'd have an excuse for why you're holding back."

Kagome raised a brow at the break in her little sister's carefully constructed pout. "The spell is broken, Rin. I won't be manipulated."

Rin watched her sister move her chair back and return to reading the news. She stood and walked to the coffee and confections as Sango entered the kitchen. "Your breakfast is on the table, San. And it's your turn. She's being stubborn."

Sango sighed and shook her head at the incredulous look Kagome was giving both of her sisters. "I'll call him in my own time."

"You've been making him wait for three days. That's not very good dating etiquette, Kagome." Sango said as she sat down to her breakfast Rin had so dutifully left for her.

Kagome looked up sharply at her calm sister who was sipping her juice. "We aren't dating."

"Then what are you doing?"

"Being… Friends and doing friend things. That isn't dating!"

She put up her hands defensively at the hostility in Kagome's tone and then returned to eating her breakfast. Once finished with eating her cereal through Kagome's intense, almost fuming glances, Sango rested her head on her hand and met her younger sister's intensely immoveable eyes. "I'll make you almond cookies. The kind that Kaede taught me to make that you fell in love with. Just call him."

Kagome stilled at the offer of her favorite cookie. She could cook very well. Stews, roasts, just about anything you could think of… Except baking. She was doomed to a culinary fate where all of her baked goods tasted heavily of baking soda. There was simply no room in the rules of baking for Kagome's creativity. Sango, though, could bake anything. Especially almond cookies. She curtailed the building saliva that was pooling in her mouth and looked away from her sister in a good show of will and determination. "I'll call him in my own time."

Sango set her jaw and stood. She dropped her dish and glass into the sink just high enough to make a clatter but not high enough to break and then looked at a dutifully oblivious Kagome with a grumpy look. "You are the most stubborn, hard headed woman in this house, if not on the face of this planet. Even when it's for your own good."

Kagome looked up slowly and met her sister's gaze. "And it's that stubbornness and refusal to see reason that got us to Japan, Jie Jie. It isn't always a fault."

"But it isn't always a virtue, either."

She'd left the room and Kagome had sighed deeply. She hadn't always been so immoveable. She'd been very pliant when she was younger. Before Morgan had been taken from her. She was even a little gullible for the level of trust she placed in people. But the world had jaded her. Time had hardened that gentle, innocent part of her and what was left of that part she protected fiercely. It was the last bit of her that still dreamed and hoped and loved. She wouldn't let it be hurt again. The problem was that she knew it already had its sights set on what, or, rather, whom it wanted. Kagome just wasn't sure she could risk that part of herself again.

Chora entered the kitchen next and Kagome had rolled her eyes. "Is it your turn now?"

"My turn?" She looked up from stirring milk and sugar into her coffee with what seemed to be honest curiosity. Then her eyes sparkled and the spell was broken. "Oh, you mean in line to convince you to call Sesshomaru? Yes. That would be why I'm down here. Aside from the coffee."

"So what's your angle? Will you be baking me cookies too?" She asked with a sharp edge to her voice.

"You want me to get better and be happy, right Kagome?"

Her eyes narrowed and darkened. "Chora, that is a stupid question."

"So I'm a dummy. Answer me."

She gave an exasperated sigh and rolled her eyes. She slammed her computer closed and looked back to her beautiful hanyou sister. "Of course I want you to get better and be happy again. I want you to sing again someday, Chora. I want you to go outside and live again. You know that."

"Well, we want the same things for you, Kagome." She sipped her coffee and leaned on the kitchen counter near the sink before looking up at her sister again. "But I know better than trying to guilt you into doing this because you'd know that I was trying to make you guilty. So I'm going to tell you a little secret that you already know. I like Inuyasha. Very much. And he likes me, however… We're both adults and we don't need chaperones. You take care of me and that's wonderful. He takes care of Sesshomaru and that is wonderful. However, he doesn't want to bring Sesshomaru over here when he knows very well that the two of us will want some grown up space."

"In other words, you want me to go call Sesshomaru and go and spend time with Sesshomaru so Inuyasha can come over here and spend time with you."

"That would be my motes operandi, yes." She smiled sweetly, but Kagome knew her better than that. "However, I prefer to call it 'reminding Kagome that she just wants me to be happy.' It has a better ring to it."

"Less criminal."

"Definitely."

"You are evil."

"Most certainly." She said with a mischievous smile. "I am the Morrigain's daughter."

She ran her fingers through her hair one more time in an attempt to tame the rampant waves and unruly curls. She'd thought about straitening it, but had decided on not. Now it was too late to reconsider. She stood and slid her feet into a pair of bright purple flip-flops that clashed just slightly with the deep, sea green t-shirt she was wearing. She pulled a fluffy, thin weave lavender sweater on that went to the knees of her torn up blue-jeans, grabbed her keys from the dish on her night stand and walked to the door. She hadn't called him. She figured that she would surprise him. That way it was less like Chora had tricked her into doing something she wasn't ready to do. She wasn't ready to call him, but she was most certainly ready to show up on his doorstep unannounced. It, also, felt happily unlike dating.

------

Sesshomaru wasn't used to having to hide things from his pack. He wasn't used to or even acquainted with subversion. They had gotten good at reading him. They had to in order to know what he needed when he would never ask. They had fallen into his rhythms of seclusion and need to be close to those whom he had chosen to surround himself with. Every aspect of his life was open to them because they were the ones keeping him alive and he had accepted that as easily as he had accepted his malady. In other words, he still was not accustom nor happy about their ability to simply know him and read his actions or lack there of. He didn't like being predictable. And so it had taken a great deal of subversion, which he had never found need for previously; to obtain the things he so desperately wanted to the point of need.

As distasteful as it was to him, Jaken had been the key. The little toad youkai had been his father's most trusted servant. At only a few months old, shortly after the death of his mother, it had been learned that Sesshomaru could tolerate the toad's scent and so Jaken had been set from his normal tasks in the household to being the tiny Maru's nursemaid. Aside from his father, Jaken was the only creature whose scent was soothing enough for the infant that he would eat or sleep. Still, he ate little and slept less, but it was an improvement and his emaciated form that had come from his mother's absence, finally began to fill out and the pale, sickly baby boy began to thrive. Simply, the distaste at having Jaken run his errands came from Sesshomaru's great dislike of manipulating the toad. As temperamental as the inuyoukai was and as horrible as he could be to the green little imp, Sesshomaru saw him as a second father and respected his patience. It was very hard, though, for the now very tall and adult inuyoukai not to act like a petulant toddler around one who alone possessed the last vestiges of parental authority in his life. Jaken also had the annoying habit of speaking to him and of him as if he were still a boy. Everything he did from the hostile take over of companies to simply waking up in the morning was cause for the toad youkai to beam and brag with pride and then, dutifully, pat Sesshomaru on the head as if he were taking his very first steps.

And so it had been the morning after visiting Kagome and her sisters, long before any of his brothers would even begin to open their eyes, that he had cornered Jaken.

"You will obtain the things on this list within the next hour and return them to me. You will tell no one of this." He had said in an immoveable tone.

Jaken's eyes had bulged. "But… But Sesshomaru, these things are dangerous for you. I cannot participate in something that may well kill you. Did not the doctor say that if you had another episode, your mind might stop and you would cease?"

"I will wear my mask and ensure that the room is properly ventilated." He replied and, noting the toad's continued resistance, inwardly sighed and played his gambit. "Either you do this for me, or I find another way. You know that I will."

There had been no further argument. An hour later the toad had returned with canvas already stretched over wooden frames, a box filled with rich tubes of vibrant oil paints, an expensive set of fine sable brushes and the much dreaded turpentine and linseed oil to clean and condition his brushes after their use.

He had taken great pains to keep the scent in his sanctuary confined to his sanctuary. He hung lengths of plastic that he sealed with heavy-duty duct tape that separated the door between his room where the sink was and the main expanse of his sanctuary. The ventilation system was turned on to its highest setting so that the scent was drug out of the room as quickly as possible and he did, indeed, wear a mask as he worked. Once he finished his work for each afternoon on the pictures he was so fixated upon, he would strip down out of what he called his 'painting clothing' and reseal the plastic divider before showering away the scent from his body. Then came his favorite part of his little ritual. He would take the shirt he'd been wearing when he'd had dinner with Kagome and curl up on his bed for several moments simply breathing in her scent that she'd left there for him. The scent of her was fading slowly. He knew he had only a few more days before its calming and healing powers failed and he would have to abandon his art project. He only hoped he would see her again in the very new future. He still was not certain he had her eyes right.

------

She'd been sitting outside of the townhouse for almost thirty minutes. There were four cars present, meaning at least one of them was out of the house or, perhaps Sesshomaru did not own a car. She wasn't certain. She'd mused that maybe he had a car. Some gorgeous, expensive thing that had a retractable roof that he always wanted to use, but never did. His dream car. His dream. She knew a great deal about the 'broken generation.' She'd done her thesis on it. Many never survived their first years of life. Many had fallen prey to their maladies and either become institutionalized or had passed away. Many had committed suicide. Morgan had been a part of that generation, but his malady, if he'd ever had a malady, had not been fatal on any level. The world had been fatal enough.

She really hoped that Sesshomaru had that car. She wanted him to. She wanted to go driving with him some day in it. But she doubted he did and that they ever would. He had said he only wanted to be her friend and she was happy for that. As much as she was afraid, she was tired of being alone with her sisters. She missed the world and she hated her own hardness that time and the world had helped her acquire. She wanted to be soft again, sheltered by something or someone so she could be soft and pliable and gullible in the world again.

She rubbed her temples absently. She had a reoccurring headache, always around the same time of day. She knew she should go to a doctor for it, but what would they tell her? She was physically incapable of being ill because of her immortality. It could not be a tumor or blood clot. If it were a tension headache, she could simply focus on the knots and tension and will it away with her control over her own body. It had to be something else. Something a medical doctor couldn't help her with and so she avoided what she knew had to be the inevitable visit to a sterile white room and a tight lipped doctor who took her vitals and listened to her heart with a cold metal stethoscope and subjected her to a battery of useless tests all to tell her what she already knew. She'd need to see a spiritual healer to remedy the problem. But she'd never be referred without the mindless, senseless, horrible visit to a place where she was constantly reminded of the one thing she'd never know without intense violence: peace. Simply, aside from having one of her vitals forcibly removed (And even then she wasn't certain that it wouldn't just grow back on its own.) or being decapitated, she would not die. She couldn't die. However, she wasn't so keen on the idea of having a perpetually reoccurring headache that seemed to always time itself between the hours of eleven in the morning and three in the afternoon.

There was a knock on her passenger door's window and she looked up sharply to see Inuyasha standing there with a crooked smile on his face. She sighed and smiled back before exiting her vehicle and joining him on the sidewalk. "I thought I'd make a surprise visit."

"I noticed."

"Did Chora call?" She asked with faint amusement in her voice.

"Yeah, when she realized you'd left about an hour ago. I thought I'd wait for you to get here before I told Maru and then I noticed you just sitting out here about ten minutes ago when I went to get the mail. You looked kind of lost in thought."

"I was." She said with a slight smile. "I feel like you boys are conspiring with my sisters."

He laughed and led her to the door. "That's because we are."

"You're very forthcoming." She replied as she entered the beautiful townhouse and slipped out of her flip-flops. She noticed his pleased smile.

"There's no point in lying when you already know."

"Don't get your hopes up for us falling in love, Inuyasha." She said with a sudden sternness.

He ran a hand through his long hair and scratched at one of his adorable puppy ears as he gathered his thoughts. "There's something you should know about how I operate, Kagome, cause it will help you understand why that's a really dumb thing to tell me. Sesshomaru's my brother. I love him like nothing else. He's all I got left in this fucked up world and I just want to see him happy. Whether you're just best friends or end up mated, I don't really care. But I'm always gonna hope for what's best for him and, in my mind, that doesn't mean you two exchanging friendship bracelets and working out a secret handshake. You'll pretty much find that line of thought a theme for all of us here where Maru's concerned and, I bet, if you think about it, your sisters are the same way about you."

She studied him and smirked. "And Sesshomaru knows about this too?"

"He isn't an idiot and neither are you. We aren't playing you for one and this isn't high school. You're both adults. Stubborn, thick headed, short sighted adults who have gotten so stuck in just getting from one moment to the next that you've forgotten how to enjoy the moments you're living through."

"Ok, I said forthcoming. I should have said you're a blunt asshole." Annoyance began creeping into her voice.

He put up his hands in surrender and tilted his head and blinked his eyes slowly at her. "You're pretty much on the money with that." He replied as he lowered his hands. "But so am I about you and my brother. Which, speaking of, let me go and call him for you."

She sighed and walked to one of the incredibly comfortable looking couches before collapsing into its encompassing fluffiness.

Inuyasha smirked and walked to the intercom before pressing the button that would patch him in to Sesshomaru's sanctuary. "Hey, Maru. There's a pretty girl here to see you."

Sesshomaru paused a moment and looked at the raven-haired beauty that was taking form on his canvas. Everything was perfect except for her eyes. He put down his palate and moved to the part of the wall he'd ensured was within the barrier of plastic where the intercom was located. He pushed back his mask and tried not to inhale the fumes. "Kagome?" He asked with uncertainty lacing his voice. "Was she not going to call?"

"She wanted to surprise you." Came the amused response.

He smiled and his eyes sparkled faintly as he looked to his window out onto the world a moment before replying. "I will be out momentarily."

Upon his brother's affirmation, he moved to the break in the plastic and stripped quickly before he broke the seal of duct tape and slipped through the door into his room. He didn't even bother resealing the plastic, though he did close the door between rooms and then jumped into the shower to quickly wash the scent of oil paint and turpentine from his hair. He hadn't even bothered to clean his brushes in his excitement to see her. He was usually so careful and calculating, however he abandoned such things in his eagerness to once again look on the woman who had so possessed his thoughts since the first meeting of their eyes across a crowded club.

He wrung out his long hair once he'd finished his shower and dressed quickly. He looked to his bed and the neatly folded shirt that still vaguely held her scent, but thought better of it since he would be seeing her momentarily. He stepped out of his room and walked to the living room. For a moment before her pure, soft scent touched his nose, his world had begun to spin and aching pain began to pang through his skull and then it simply faded away and he was himself again.

He heard a whimper from the couch and saw her small form curled up within the pillowy softness, waiting for him. He frowned and Inuyasha raised a brow.

"Kagome, are you all right?" His brother asked with a familiar concern touching his voice.

"I'm ok…" She smiled faintly. There was cloudiness to her gaze that was falling away like morning mist to reveal the purity of her eyes. "I just had a really bad headache for a moment."

Inuyasha's raised brow turned to a concerned scowl. "We have some pain killers in the kitchen…"

"Tylenol doesn't touch it." She said quickly. "And, besides, it's gone now. I'm alright."

"If there is more pain…" Her warm gaze turned to him and he smiled slightly, and then frowned as worry crossed her gaze. There was something warm on his lip. He reached up and touched where he felt the warmth and withdrew with crimson stained fingers.

"Shit! Maru, sit down." It wasn't a request. He followed his brother's order blindly and found a wad of tissues forced into his hand to pack against his nose. He looked up at the nearly terrified expression on Inuyasha's face.

"I have no pain, Inuyasha…"

"Fuck that, you're bleeding." Came the hanyou's rough retort. Inuyasha's eyes diverted to the girl who was watching in horror and deep concern. "Go and call for Miroku, then get the green bottle that's near the sink and a glass of water."

Her eyes diverted to the annoyed look on Sesshomaru's face, and then she turned to do as she was asked. She felt tightness in her chest and her throat and when she called out for Miroku when she was at the hallway, her voice broke. She looked down and her hands were shaking badly. She chose to ignore it and rushed to the kitchen. She filled a glass with water and grabbed the unmarked green plastic bottle she saw near the sink. She walked into the living room to find Miroku checking Sesshomaru's pulse and pupils while a bloodied handed Inuyasha speed dialed a number with one hand on his cell phone with his other hand still holding the nearly completely blood drenched pack of tissue to his brother's nose.

Her hands shook and, while she kept a firm grip on the bottle, the glass of water slipped from her hand and shattered on the hardwood.

"Shit… Miroku, grab her." Inuyasha said. Why did he look so worried? Why did they both look so worried? Her world began to spin. Everything began to spin. There was so much blood… So much of his blood. Two strong, warm arms wrapped around her and she leaned heavily into the monk.

He scooped her up into his arms and carefully carried her to a chair in the kitchen away from the two brothers and the blood. He carefully pried her fingers away from the green bottle of herbal medication Jinenji had so diligently mixed for them only a few days before. He smoothed the girl's hair and face and met her lost eyes. They were shimmering with the two heavy pools of tears threatening to break and spill over her porcelain cheeks. "He's ok. He's going to be ok."

"He's bleeding." She said softly and then her eyes widened with the stark reality of her words and the tears she'd been fighting won the battle, cascading down her face, staining her pristine cheeks with salt. "Oh Goddess, he's bleeding…"

Miroku frowned in concern and tried to gather her into his embrace, but she pushed away from him and so he drew back and settled for pushing her beautifully wild hair from her face behind her ears. "Yes, he does that sometimes. When his senses overload. He told you about them, didn't he?" She nodded. "There isn't any pain, Kagome, and he's not going into a seizure, which is good. Now I need to get him his medicine. Can you stay here for me?" She nodded again and he smiled faintly before taking the green bottle and filling another glass with water and returning to his friends hastily.

Inuyasha looked to Miroku as he returned. Sesshomaru was holding his nose with a new packing of tissues. The others had been discarded in the trash. "The bleeding's slowing… Is she ok?"

Miroku nodded slightly, though his expression of worry gave him away. "She's strong…"

"No…" Sesshomaru murmured before taking the pills he had been handed by the monk. He sipped some of the water before continuing. "She's terrified."

They heard the shifting of glass and looked up to see Kagome in the kitchen doorway mopping up the water and collecting shards of the glass she'd broken with shaking hands. Her tears were gone, but her whole body was tense. She gasped and pulled back from her task as a fracture of clear glass she had missed sliced open her finger.

Sesshomaru frowned and Miroku moved to her quickly. "Kagome, we should clean that up… You shouldn't even be doing this."

"I broke it." Came her simple, innocent response. Her eyes were fixed on her finger as more and more crimson oozed from the deep gash. "I made a mess."

The men watched with a strange sort of fascination as the girl cleaned her finger with the towel she'd brought from the kitchen, then brought it to her mouth for a moment. When she withdrew the sliced digit, it was healed as if it had never been cut.

Miroku knelt beside her and quietly helped her clean up the water and broken glass. She seemed transfixed by the task and he was almost afraid of breaking her out of her thoughts. When they were finished, he helped her back to the couch and sat her there. Her eyes were far away and he had no idea how to bring her back. He wasn't sure he could handle her tears if he managed to. He looked up to a very worried set of brothers, and then focused on Sesshomaru. He reached out and grabbed a strand of the inuyoukai's damp hair, ignoring his growling. There was a bit of red clinging within the silver. "This isn't blood… Sesshomaru, what have you been doing that caused you to overload so quickly after your last?"

His jaw set stubbornly and he looked to the tissue he'd held to his nose as he pulled it back. "The bleeding's stopped."

Inuyasha pulled the phone from his ear after a final 'uhu' into the receiver. "Jinenji's going to be over with some salve he wants you to inhale… What do you mean, Miroku?"

The monk raised a brow at Sesshomaru's subversiveness. It only meant an unnatural mischief had possessed the inuyoukai. He turned on his heel and walked to the door that led to Sesshomaru's room without another word. He ignored his friend as he cursed at him, putting up his hand in dismissal. He knew Inuyasha would hold his brother back, not that Sesshomaru was going anywhere after the blood loss.

He opened the door to Sesshomaru's room, and then walked to the place that was known as the sanctuary. He opened the door and was instantly hit with the scent of turpentine and oil paints and linseed oil. He swore under his breath and walked forward to push back the translucent sheets of thick plastic and his breath caught in his throat. They were honestly the most beautiful portraits he'd ever seen. There was such care and love in every brush stroke that Miroku found himself entranced for several moments with the beauty before him. Three portraits of Kagome. The first was of her sleeping, her hair a curling curtain of ebony night pooled beneath her perfect face. The second was of her smiling a soft, half smile. Her eyes were twinkling and warm. And the third… There weren't words for the third. It was unfinished, however it was, by far, the most beautiful. She was smiling a hopeful, beautiful smile that touched her eyes while leaning into the touch of a very familiar clawed hand with magenta markings at the wrist. Her eyes were the only aspect that had not yet been finished. They still lacked a sharpness, a known reality that the other pictures already captured.

He wanted to be angry with him. He wanted to run into the living room and beat the ever-living shit out of him. He could have died. What he was doing was next to suicide as far as Miroku could see. He knew he could have killed himself… He had to have known, but the longing the pictures revealed to Miroku was enough to snuff his anger and kill it. He couldn't be angry when he knew that his friend had found such hope.

But it had to stop. Or else that hope, that dream would never be realized. He turned and walked out of the room after closing it tightly. When he entered the living room, his eyes met with Sesshomaru's and the inuyoukai snarled.

"Don't you even fucking think you can growl at me after what I saw in there, Maru." He said in a deadly tone. Sesshomaru's eyes widened and then softened slightly.

"You don't understand…"

"How did you get them? Did you talk Jaken into it?"

"What the hell are you talking about, Miroku?" Inuyasha asked with worry and growing anger in his voice. Sesshomaru had been doing something stupid. Something very unlike his brother. Something that, no doubt, from Miroku's tone, would have ended with Inuyasha finding his brother dead in a pool of his own blood one morning.

"Not. Now."

"No, now." Miroku grounded out. He looked to Kagome whose gaze was returning to the present, still lost, but entirely with them. "Definitely now. She might make you listen."

"Miroku…" His eye was twitching erratically. "Tell me what he did. Tell me what you saw…"

"He smuggled in oil paints and every thing he needed to work them. He had to have been at it for days."

His eyes turned sharply to his elder brother and suddenly felt like he was the older of the two. "Are you a fucking idiot? What was so important…"

"I could not continue to work in the medium I had been using. It was not sufficient." He said in a leveled tone.

"You're an artist?" For an instant, she had been forgotten. Not by Sesshomaru, but most definitely by Inuyasha and Miroku and even, a little bit, by her own self. It had all been so surreal.

He looked to her and nodded slightly. "For the better part of my life, though most of what I do is in pencil and, therefore, black and white."

"You wanted color." She murmured and gazed deeply into his golden orbs. She drew herself up onto her knees and studied him from her place on the couch. "There are other things aside from oil paints. My sister's an artist, too. I have an intimate insight into these kinds of things."

"None were rich enough."

"Is your life less important than the richness of color?"

"Only when there is no color in my life."

It was beginning to tighten again and it was so hard to breathe. She forced herself to exhale and a tight whimpering sigh escaped with her breath. Before she could think, she'd slapped him. She looked at her hand and then drew back, shaking from the shock of her actions. She looked back and saw the pain in his expression and she so desperately wanted to soothe it away, but more than that… She didn't want him to ever leave.

"I want to make something really, very crystal clear for you, Sesshomaru." She breathed and then silently cursed herself for her tears as their eyes clashed together. "There's nothing in this world worth dying for. Except for someone you love. No cause or desire or need holds as much importance as that one thing. And I'm sorry if that makes it hard, but you can't die… You can't treat your life like it means absolutely nothing, because it most certainly does mean something to some one… You have a group of people who love you who would simply fall apart if you ever died."

"Kagome, I never intended…"

"No. You don't get to talk. I came all the way over here to surprise you and then you decided to be stupid and bled all over the place. It's my turn to be stupid and careless and make you listen to me." The words had come out before she'd been able to stop them and so she decided, with an ease that terrified her, that she couldn't possibly say anything else that was worse. Oh, how naïve. "I've watched too many people I love bleed into the earth and die. And… And you don't get to be another one of them or else I'll never be able to surprise you again and…" Her eyes widened almost impossibly. She stumbled back off the couch and covered her mouth. "I need to go…"

She was panicking. She looked like a deer aching to bolt. Miroku moved to her and grabbed her shoulders to steady her. "Kagome, we need you to stay until Jinenji gets here… Your scent stills his pain. If you go, he might…"

She fought her way free of him and threw her sweater at him before backing into the front door. "I can't… Keep it. It has my scent on it. I just… I need to go."

She was out of the door barely a second later. Sesshomaru looked to his brother. "She's shaking… She shouldn't drive."

"I'll drive her home." Inuyasha confirmed and quickly wiped his brother's blood from his hands before he raced out of the house after Kagome. She was still at her car, her hands shaking so badly she couldn't fit her key into the lock. He reached out to her and she screamed, and then sobbed as she realized who was there. He put up his hands and spoke to her gently. "You're really shaky and none of us feel safe letting you drive home."

She whimpered and nodded before giving him the keys. She climbed in once he opened the door, then moved to the passenger seat after he spoke once more to her in a gentle tone. For a long while he didn't speak and neither did she. Then, only a few blocks from her home, she broke the silence.

"He'll be ok, won't he?"

Inuyasha glanced to the small, curled form sitting in the seat next to him and smiled sadly. "He should have died…" She whimpered and he reached out to grasp her forearm. She took his hand and their fingers entwined. "You know what kismet is?"

"Like fate."

"In a lot of ways… Basically, if you follow your instincts and your heart, you'll always be exactly where you're supposed to be." She turned her gaze to his once he had parked her car in the driveway of her house. His eyes were gold, but not the same gold of Sesshomaru's. But the similar tone was still comforting. "He should have died, but he didn't, Kagome. He didn't die because you were there and I believe that has to mean something."

"I don't know if I can let myself love someone again, Inuyasha." Her voice was filled with fear and a strange kind of strangled hope or the desire for it.

He smiled crookedly squeezed her hand. "What I've learned in my much longer time than yours about love is really rather simple… We don't get to choose love. It finds us and holds on… The only thing we get to choose about love, really, is if we hold on back."


	8. Chapter 8

8- II do not own Inuyasha/I

**b There are minor changes to time frame. I wanted them to leave in the morning rather than the evening.**

**The first thing is a deep thanks to those who like this story enough to nominate it for Best AU Fanfic and Best Angst/Drama Fanfic on A.Single.Spark. I don't have words. I write because it brings me joy and pleasure. That it brings others joy and pleasure is overwhelming and gives me encouragement to continue.**

**The second thing is that now I have stage fright. I'm not sure I like this chapter for many reasons… But I'll let you all be the judges on this.**

**Be well, all of you, and thank you again.**

**Peace.**

**Ivy/b**

8-

His face looked as if it could have been carved from the very earth itself. He was not a handsome man, as society would have defined it, however he had in his features a powerful kind of ancient beauty. Some might even have said his face resembled the faces of the ancient ones. The first ones. The parents of the faeries and youkai. His eyes were large and a deep crystal blue, though there were no whites to them. His hair was short, coarse and charcoal black that he wore back in a tightly bound tail. His skin was earthen brown and all covered with a thin layer of ever so soft fir that lay fitted across the strong muscles of his jaw and face, throat and neck. He could not be mistaken as a human, however, his features were not threatening, only different and against the norm for beauty. He entered the world from his walled home in the nearby suburbia with its expansive, multi layered gardens that he tended with infinite care dressed in gloves and a hooded coat that came to his mid calf and a scarf wrapped around his mouth. He was not afraid of the world but he knew very well, how afraid of him the world was. He was half youkai, a hanyou, as Inuyasha was, however he had not inherited any of the normal attributes of his youkai father. They were both of the earth; his father and he, of the horse youkai stock and both had been great healers. His father had taught him everything the immortal youkai had known before his death and Jinenji had forgotten not a single fraction of the great knowledge.

As a small boy, he had played with the Taisho brothers. He was only a few months younger than Sesshomaru and so it was as the great Inu no Taisho called upon the humble healer, Kinjo Mamoru, Jinenji was introduced to his closest and dearest life long friends. Though he was, at the best of times, a loner, Jinenji came to consider the Taisho family his own. When his own father and the Taisho brother's family had been killed, he had found consolation and strength within the small pack that had been formed around the elder brother, Sesshomaru, and had found purpose sustaining the fragile inuyoukai.

It was just noon as the tall, muscular form dressed and hooded in earthen colors walked up to the door of the large town house and pressed with a meaty finger the small, elegant button that signaled his arrival. A moment later, the door was opened by a shorter male ookami with jet-black hair and piercing blue eyes. The fierceness fled his expression as he recognized the hanyou before him.

"Jinenji. Thank kami, maybe you can talk some sense into him."

He hunched as he entered and looked to the scowling inuyoukai who was sitting on the couch. Currently he was being stared down by a much smaller, wiry kitsune who had even removed his techno glasses for the occasion.

"What sense is he to see, Kouga?" Jinenji asked in a soft voice as he surveyed the room. The monk, Miroku, was leaning against the kitchen's doorframe sipping slowly from a glass filled with an amber liquid and a couple of cubes of ice. "Where is Inuyasha?"

"He took Kagome home… That girl that Maru was looking for."

"He found her?" Jinenji asked softly as he began to unravel his scarf from over his mouth.

"Here, let me take those…" Kouga reached out and took Jinenji's coat, scarf and gloves. "We found her for him. Turns out she was that Higurashi woman."

Jinenji raised a brow and smirked. "Perhaps he has learned a lesson about patience and controlling his vindictiveness."

Kouga shrugged. "They seem to be hitting it off well enough. I wasn't there, but the mutt told me that she forgave him and he forgave her."

"I can hear every word you two are saying." Came the icy voice of Sesshomaru from across the room. He had not yet diverted his gaze from Shippo's and did not intend to until the kit surrendered to his superior will.

Kouga chuckled and shook his head as he approached the staring match. Shippo had resorted to daggers while Sesshomaru had decided ice was enough to freeze the kitsune out. "So are you gonna tell Jinenji why you nearly croaked or should Miroku and I show him before the cleaners get here?"

It was just a flicker of movement, but the inuyoukai's frozen gaze was diverted. "Ha." Shippo called out, though it was with a sarcasm that overshadowed any victory.

"You did not win."

"I didn't lose either, asshole." Shippo retorted without any glimmer of his usual mirth. "So answer me. What the hell were you thinking?"

"I told you as I told the monk and my idiot brother that the medium…"

"…you were using was no longer sufficient. I heard it, Sesshomaru." The kit stood and shook his head. He crumpled his green glasses in his hand before throwing them against the nearest wall where they shattered. He snarled and looked back to the inuyoukai who was busily studying the floor. "You remember where you and Yash and Kouga found me, Maru?" He asked in a soft but cutting tone. "You remember finding me in the rubble that was Nagasaki trying to wake up my dead mother and father? They used up every damned bit of power they had to erect a barrier around me so that I'd survive the blast. That's the kind of thing you die for, not a goddamn set of paintings that'll crack and fade in a couple of centuries. You got a shot at some kind of happiness and you almost threw it all away just cause the medium wasn't sufficient? Since when did you get to be the thoughtless one in this pack?"

He breathed out a shuddering breath. It was the second time in the last hour that he'd heard that sentiment. The second time that he'd been cut into by someone dear to him with that simple thought. He'd scared them all. He'd terrified them and broken them down and all because he couldn't think straight. "I'm sorry." He murmured and then smiled sadly at the overwhelming silence. He couldn't look up at any of them. "There was no thought except that I needed some part of her… I cannot expect her to love an invalid. I cannot bring myself to hope."

The amber liquid swirled and glistened with the light as it flashed off the two thick cubes of ice that danced within the liquor. He watched as the maelstrom within the tumbler spun in a thin line from the bottom to the top and then faded as he stilled the fine blown glass in the palm of his hand. He was so much younger than all of them and yet, sometimes, he was the oldest soul among them. He looked up from his whiskey and met the contemplative gaze of Jinenji as it lifted from the stoic inuyoukai perched on the edge of the couch staring intently at his hands. "When I was a kid, I always knew what I wanted and exactly how to get it." He said in his slow, deep baritone as he approached the men whose singular ages each were a triple or more of his own. "I watched my father and I learned exactly what I had to do and I perfected the act into an art form… I've known you for, what, seven years now, Maru?" He met Sesshomaru's gaze as it slowly lifted and turned to meet his.

"Eight in the course of a month." He replied softly.

Miroku smirked. "Today, if Kagome hadn't been here, I might have out lived you. You were born to inherit nearly an eternal life had everything worked out the way it should have. You talk about being an invalid and not burdening her or any of us with your malady, but what it really comes down to is that you've always gotten exactly what you've wanted. We're spoiled, you and me. We aren't accustomed to people saying no to us. But what we can't handle is when we get hit in the face with what we really need."

He scowled deeply and snarled at his friend faintly. "You believe I have everything I have ever wanted? I cannot walk in the world…"

"That's something you need, Maru, not something you want. You need the world. You need people and you need to be able to touch and be touched like every single other person on this planet, immortal or not. Sentient beings need only three things to survive. They need shelter, they need sustenance and they need stimulation from others. We need to be touched or else we'll die. I believe that you'd trade everything you've ever wanted for that one thing you need but haven't ever had the chance at… And she's your chance. So stop feeling bad for yourself and try, damnit."

A soft but throaty laugh came from the broad hanyou as he sat across from one of his oldest friends. Sesshomaru turned his gaze to Jinenji. "You agree with the lecherous monk?"

"I do." He replied simply. "You do, also."

A faint smile shadowed his expression and he shrugged. "I am not used to being bullied."

"And yet you have surrounded yourself with those who question your judgment, how very odd." Jinenji smiled as he began examining Sesshomaru. He felt his pulse and looked at his eyes and then scowled at the pile of blood soaked tissues in the trash. "For that same amount of blood, you might have been taken to the hospital again, Maru. But I will not lecture you or remind you of your frailty any more. I feel those are subjects that have been discussed enough for one evening." His eyes looked to the thin lavender cardigan that was lying near the inuyoukai. He took it after Sesshomaru nodded permission and brought it near to his nose. He breathed in deeply and slowly as he analyzed the scent. When he was finished, he sat back down and smiled a crooked smile. "She is immortal… Turned by faerie before she was ever broken or marked… And she has been marked, though it is long gone."

Kouga tilted his head in question. "How can you know that much when Maru didn't?"

"I am the son of an immortal healer. He taught me everything he knew before he died and that knowledge has served me well." He chuckled at the ookami's raised brow. "Every living thing has an aura, an energy that is tangled within their scent. We all can sense it on a subconscious level. This is why we enjoy certain foods more than others and why we seek certain company. It is why we feel some places are home while others are not. It is all directly linked to our energies. We are tuned to that which will fulfill us and so we seek such things out. What my father trained me to do was read this energy in the scent of others so I could find what they needed in order to be fulfilled or, for lack of a better explanation, to heal them. Beings of spiritual origin who are tuned to such things, such as mikos and monks, are even more aware of the energies around them and, if trained, are able to identify such minutia easily where it took me a lifetime to master my abilities. This girl is also a miko. Had she ever been trained, she might have become one of the greatest of her time, however, now that she has been stilled, her powers will remain dormant, acting only when her instincts are touched and react to a threat or something more… Subconscious."

Miroku listened carefully before he spoke. "I knew she was immortal and a miko, Jinenji, but I hadn't drawn the line that far… Chora, her sister, suggested that they had recognized each other. That they were drawn together."

"And when did you intend on telling me such a thing?" Sesshomaru asked through grinding teeth.

"When were you planning on telling us about your paintings?" Miroku asked as he stared down one of his dearest friends. He noted both Shippo and Kouga's looks of approval.

Jinenji smirked and pulled out a small tin and put it in the inuyoukai's hands. "Breathe this in when your headaches start. It's potent enough to drown out your sense of smell for a bit until you can get your medicine into your system." He stood and chuckled at the almost lost look in the eyes of one who he'd never known to ever become lost. "Maru, I've known you for a very long time. Only your brother can trump me for years that you can call a person one of your pack… And in all that time, one thing about you has remained the same. You don't know how to accept love. It frightens you, and of all the people in your life, I understand why. But this Kagome already knows of your malady. She's seen it first hand, now…"

"She left."

Miroku chuckled and ignored Sesshomaru's sharp gaze. "She left because she thought she'd made a fool of herself, Maru. She all but said that she's falling in love with you, or did you miss that?"

"She slapped me."

"You deserved it." The monk retorted with a clipped tone. "She did what I wanted to do to you. She said what every one of us wanted to say to you and she meant it… And you didn't hear it because you're afraid of what it might mean for you. And, believe it or not, she's just as terrified of what it means for her. What you mean for her. You didn't see her eyes when she registered that you were bleeding out, Maru. It was like she was seeing her whole world fall apart… Again."

He let out a ragged sigh and reached out to the sweater only to rest it on his knee. The fabric was so soft in his hand. He closed his eyes and leaned back into the softness of the couch. It seemed like too much to take in. Everything they were saying. Everything was true, but it seemed as if it might crush him entirely… Except for the knowledge that making it through meant she was there, with him. For a moment, he allowed himself to replay her words over in his mind. 'There's nothing in this world worth dying for. Except for someone you love. No cause or desire or need holds as much importance as that one thing. And I'm sorry if that makes it hard, but you can't die… You can't treat your life like it means absolutely nothing, because it most certainly does mean something to some one… You have a group of people who love you who would simply fall apart if you ever died… I've watched too many people I love bleed into the earth and die. And… And you don't get to be another one of them or else I'll never be able to surprise you again and…' And what? His thoughts wrapped around her words again and he felt something deep within him warm and sparkle. "She's so strong so much of the time, Miroku… And she's so afraid of being weak even though that's what she really wants. She takes care of everything and everyone and all she's ever wanted was to have someone there for her… So she knows when she's tired she can rest. She needs someone she can trust to never leave her and I… Want to be that person for her."

The monk smiled and watched as a certain unspeakable tension released from those whose eyes were so focused on their friend and alpha. They'd need more than luck. He knew that. Sango had said as much… But Miroku knew that, at least for the moment, that small first piece was on their side. Luck was in their favor.

--

She heard the bolt slide back as she had been ascending the stairs with a mug of hot chocolate she'd made herself only moments before. She turned just in time to see a shaky Kagome being guided inside by a worried looking Inuyasha. She tilted her head and met the other hanyou's eyes in concern. "What happened? I thought she was going to go and see Sesshomaru."

He shook his head and smirked. "He surprised us. Kagome, do you want help up the stairs? You're still really shaky and I don't want you falling down head over heels."

She gave Chora and Inuyasha a watery smile. "I'm ok. I just need a shower and a nap. And it's ok… I'm sure if I snap my neck, it'll snap right back in place."

Inuyasha scowled and gripped her around her waist even as she began to protest and whine. "Like hell I'm letting you walk up there after a statement like that."

He helped her up the stairs slowly with a worried Chora close behind. Rin and Sango had gone out to buy a few new games for the console and paints for Rin who had magically run out after her last sugar high. She still wouldn't let anyone into her studio. Inuyasha maneuvered Kagome to her bed where she sat with a slight bounce on the fluffy mattress. "Are you going to be ok? You're still pretty pale."

She slapped away his hand when he went to brush some hair from her face and gave him a nasty look that also extended to Chora. "I'm ok, really. I just want a nap. And, anyway, Chora said you two wanted some time together. I sleep like the dead, so this will give you plenty of quiet time."

Chora raised a brow and then set her mug on Kagome's nightstand. "Maybe this will make you less cranky."

Kagome stuck out her tongue in a very Rin-like expression and then watched as the two hanyou left her to mope. Once she heard them go into Chora's room down and across the hall, Kagome jumped up quickly and barely made it to her bathroom before she proceeded to empty her barely full stomach into the toilet. She was shaking and weeping by the time she was finished, gripping white knuckled to the porcelain ridge with all her strength. When she was certain she was done, she flushed the toilet and crawled to her bathtub.

She began to run some water for a bath and then, taking her time, stood and rinsed her mouth out in the sink. She looked up and noticed her tears had begun again and shrunk down the wall, drawing her knees to her chest as she wept. He'd almost died right there in front of her. He almost wasn't. He was almost gone… Almost. The word ran through her mind like a mantra. It only stopped when scalding water touched her toes. Her eyes widened and she rushed to the bathtub and turned off the hot water. She gasped at the heat of the liquid that was soaking her clothing and then cried out as she reached into the nearly boiling water and grabbed the stopper. She sat on the wet tile and watched the water spin and spiral into the sewer as steam raised thick into the cool air.

--

Her room was cluttered and every free space on her walls and ceiling was covered with pictures of the world. Here and there, crystals and shiny objects dangled from hooks to catch the light and every bright color he could think of had been used to decorate including the rich silk Hindi inspired bedspread and matching curtains that were open on her canopy bed. He couldn't help but imagine how beautiful the room must be at dawn. It was an eastern facing room and so the morning sunlight would have set the room ablaze in golds and silvers and rainbows… Had the windows actually been open. Thick, heavy curtains blocked out all sunlight except for the barest crack where the fabric closed near the wall. The room was lit only with a few lamps and overhead light. In one corner was a beautiful baby grand littered with sheet music and open books.

"I thought you didn't do music any more." He said softly and noted the quirk of her lips.

"I don't sing any more. I write music and play music all the time." She murmured as she walked to the beautiful black instrument and lovingly caressed the enamel before she sat and opened the keyboard. She looked up and met shimmering golden eyes with her glowing lavender ones. "Requests?"

"For you to sing me something."

She frowned suddenly. "Didn't you just hear what I said?"

"You asked for a request. I gave you a request."

"Inuyasha, I…" She stopped and shuddered. He began to advance on her, though she barely noticed. It was so hard to breathe and then, suddenly, his hands were on her shoulders and he was standing behind her, pulling her hair back from her face. She whimpered and leaned back into his strong frame.

"Why are you afraid to sing?" His words were soft, almost whispered.

"Do you know what a banshee is, Inuyasha?"

"Like a siren. An evil Celtic spirit, or something."

She smiled sadly and covered his hands where they rested on her shoulders. "My mother was a banshee. The most powerful of all banshees… It's legend that when you hear a banshee's song, it means you're going to die. But the truth behind the legend is… Very different. A banshee's song is connected to the pain and fear of those whose lives she is connected. Most banshee were connected to women and so it was their hearts breaking and their fear that slipped into the banshee's songs. Only the dying or soon to be dead could hear them because the banshee was only singing for them. In the legends, it's said that my mother, the Morrigain, would wash the armor of the soldiers who would die in battle before the battle even began. She'd sing their names and if you heard your name, you'd die… She was the harbinger of death, but she also was the angel who brought them to the afterlife. She was a shield maiden. She was a great warrioress… And with that same voice, she sang Morgan and I to sleep when we were only infants. There are always two sides…"

"Chora, you aren't going to ensure my death if you sing for me…"

"I know I won't, Inuyasha… It's only that… I haven't sung since my brother was killed. Since I came here and the anklet was removed… I've never sung because my true powers are in my song. I'm afraid, Inuyasha… I'm afraid of what might happen."

He sat with his back to the keyboard so he could capture her gaze and quickly smoothed away her tears that had begun to fall. "Do you trust me?"

She swallowed thickly and leaned into his touch along her jaw and cheeks, closing her eyes as she spoke. "Yes… Goddess, yes."

He watched her, transfixed by her expression and the sheer beauty of her voice and her spirit that he could hear in every whispered syllable. "I'm falling in love with you, Chora." Her eyes flashed open and shone with confusion and disbelief. Again, he said the words. "I'm falling in love with you… And I'm scared to death because of it. What it might mean for me and mine and you and yours. And, at this moment, I'm so damned terrified, I don't know whether to run or kiss you."

"Kiss me."

He leaned without thought and captured her lips with his and held her close to him, reveling as she melded into him and clung to him in return. Slowly, achingly, he pulled back and rested his brow against her and smiled as tremors ran through them both. "Sing to me, Chora. Sing, because it can't be any more terrifying for you than what I just said and did was for me."

She smiled and pulled back, tracing his jaw with her fingertips. "Are you sure there isn't any raven youkai in you, Taisho Inuyasha?"

He smiled wickedly and kissed her hand. "Not to my knowledge."

--

To feel

is to open up

again and again

to agonies

best left for

stories

or nightmares.

They'd met at a coffee shop to talk. He'd sounded upset on the phone and she hadn't wanted him to be alone. They'd sat in silence for thirty minutes sipping heavily caffeinated beverages. He'd been entranced with how classically Japanese her features were even though her spirit and communication was as unfettered as her American roots. She'd been completely lost in his eyes and how their new grass color completely clashed and complimented his long, wavy red hair that he currently had let fall around his shoulders. His green glasses were gone for some reason, though she knew he'd never really needed them. They had been for the effect, which she'd enjoyed, but she realized she preferred him without them, having seen his eyes naked of the added electric tone.

"You haven't told me why you were so upset."

He blinked suddenly and smiled sadly. "Maru decided to paint with oils. He could have died had Kagome not come over to surprise him."

Her head tilted to the side and he marveled how many of Chora's expressions the sisters had taken on. Perhaps they were the Morrigain's mannerisms, or even Morgan's in actuality. It didn't really matter. "There's something more to it, though. You're used to his condition."

"You're more perceptive than people give you credit for."

"I'm a lot of things people don't give me credit for and some of those are good you haven't noticed yet… So tell me what it really is that's bothering you."

He smiled a genuine smile and reached out to trace the knuckles of her hand where she held the mug of dark liquid that had yet to completely overwhelm her system. His gaze became transfixed on the curve of her flesh between her thumb and pointer finger, then to her fragile wrist. She smiled softly and noted his artist's eye, but said nothing, waiting for his response. "My parents were of the ancients… Kitsune born within the first three generations on this earth. I was born after the broken generation, even though I was on the tail end of it… But I'm not really a part of it. Not the way Maru is. In any case, we were in Nagasaki that day. I was barely out of diapers and toddling around part of the time, but mostly I was either on my father's back or in my mother's arms. They had this love… This ancient kind of love that I could feel and taste like the sweetest honey in my mouth. And I knew that I was a part of it. I was their love given form. They never told me that, but I felt it. I knew it. So, when the bombs began to fall, they made a decision… They poured their life energy into a shield to protect me."

"You were there… When the bombs fell?" Her eyes had gone wide with shock.

He nodded and met her wide eyes before gently taking the much-admired hand in his. "You'd think after nearly a millennia of war between humans, faerie and youkai that we all would have learned our lessons. My parents were neutral in the conflict. They didn't support what the government was doing, but they had no place safe to take me… The whole world was on fire and then… Then they were just gone. The barrier survived for nearly three days. For three days I begged them to wake up. I ate what they'd had in their pockets… Gum, mints, anything I could find in that tiny space covered in rubble… Alone with their bodies. And then Kouga and Sesshomaru and Inuyasha found me. They heard me crying and sensed the energies. But it was Sesshomaru who smelled me first. They dug me out and took me to Jinenji, the family healer who still tends Maru, and he patched me up physically and then, together, the four of them raised me. They became my pack… My family."

"So seeing Maru in this state…"

"If he has one more episode, they're saying he might go brain dead."

She squeezed his hand and then gave him a sad smile. "I lost my family when I was really young. Men in armor with guns came to my house… We were all gathered there for Sunday dinner. Auntie Morrigain told Sango and Chora to hide with Kagome and me. We all huddled in a closet together. Chora and Kagome held me so tight I was afraid I'd stop breathing. Kagome had her hand over my mouth so I wouldn't scream. Sango was at the door, looking through a crack and then there was gunfire. And screaming. And my family hitting the floor. Sango started crying. She closed the door all the way and bolted it, then held onto us and we wept silently until the men in armor broke down the door to where we were. They took us away screaming out the back so we wouldn't see what they'd done to our parents and then we were taken into the custody of the state and then by Kaede who helped finish raising us… Sango always tells me that I should be glad I didn't see our family die. She says that Kagome and Chora and I should be happy about it, but she doesn't understand… What I dream up in my head is probably a hundred times worse than what actually happened."

He gripped her hand fiercely and reached out to brush away her tears. She leaned and kissed his hand softly and he smiled a lost sad smile. "We're both orphans. We all are. But you and me, Rin… We share something they can't understand… Our minds paint pictures of the past and the could have been futures and it makes it so hard sometimes just to live through this world…"

"Because what we dream is so much easier to endure."

"Yeah."

To feel

is to walk

in deeper darkness

bashing into

everything unknown

without light

or truth.

The water kept spinning and spiraling down until it was gone. She stood on shaky feet and gathered towels to mop up her mess. She laid them down on the floor and watched their colors darken several shades from a bright red to what she knew from experience looked just like blood. She turned away sharply and walked to her dresser. She opened the top drawer and looked down at the silver box that was nestled in the silk and cottony forest of her underwear. Somehow, it seemed like the proper place for her lover's ashes. Half were buried next to his mother back in California, but the other half she'd kept to take with her and burry where they ultimately ended up so he could be near his family.

She reached out and caressed the simple polished silver box and felt more hot tears slipping down her face. What was she doing? How could she let herself love again? Morgan had been her soul mate. Morgan had been her soul. How could she betray him by falling in love with another man? No matter how good he felt next to her… Holding her… Or how deeply her heart already trusted his. It didn't matter. How could it matter? She should be morning Morgan until the day of her end…

Her end… Her end that would never come. How cruel was that? She'd never be able to feel his arms around her again or feel his breath on her neck or savor the way he would always so slowly indulge in her flesh and she… She would simply bask in his presence. She was betraying him. Her heart was betraying him even though he was already dead and in the next life… She was betraying him.

Chora had said that he couldn't imagine a world without her in it, but did Morgan understand that she couldn't imagine hers without him and that she'd never wanted to… And now she was caught in hell alone.

But she wasn't alone. That was her heart's truth. Her treacherous, evil, vile heart that was daring to beat again and live again and dream again… And love again. Daring to even when she threatened it. Even when she fought it. It saw in Sesshomaru exactly what it needed and wanted and ached for. And she had to wonder if it would have felt the same way if she'd met him and Morgan had still been alive. Or was this just desperation?

No, it wasn't desperation. That was her heart's truth again. This feeling, this overwhelming urge to be near the inuyoukai born of the broken generation, afflicted with a life-threatening malady, was not desperation. It was truth. It was right. It was meant to be… So what did that mean about her and Morgan? Had they really been soul mates? She had loved him so deeply it felt like her whole being had been torn out by the roots, but did she really ever love him the way she knew she could love Sesshomaru if she'd only let herself?

Her heart wanted to answer for her, but she fought it back. If the answer came in that moment, she would have died right there or at least wished she could die and then gone on a rampage to find a way to end herself.

Goddess, she wished she were water… Water falling down a drain.

She closed the drawer and curled up on her bed in a tight knot. For a moment before she fell asleep, she could have sworn she heard singing but dismissed the possibility… Chora said she'd never sing again.

To feel

is to live

in animated dreams

that tense

and pulse with

extraordinarily pure

will and hope.

"So when did it happen?"

She looked up with a quizzical expression. She'd run into him on her way home after dropping off Rin at the coffee shop. She'd intended only to be at the book store for a few moments to pick up another cook book after discovering her much beloved Joy of Cooking hadn't made it during the move to Japan. She'd run into him at the counter. He was buying a copy of the Tao of Pooh. It had been a surprise meeting that had turned into a late dinner and drinks. "Beg pardon?"

Miroku smiled at her and then looked down at his plate before continuing. "It's a horrible line. I just couldn't help myself."

She raised a brow in amusement. "Something about falling from heaven?"

He laughed and nodded. "Something like that." He looked up and met her gaze. "I think that we're all playing a little matchmaker in this thing with Maru and Kagome. Couldn't help but hope maybe I'd get set up a bit too."

Sango sipped her wine slowly and studied him before speaking. "I have the feeling you don't have much issue finding and getting women, though. You can set yourself up."

He laughed and shook his head. "So it would seem. It's true that I don't have a problem attracting a willing partner, but none of them are the kind you think about starting a family with. Women that easy are only good for one thing."

She almost lost it and nearly spit her wine on him, but managed to maintain control and only began to choke.

"Are you ok?" He asked with genuine concern.

She coughed a few more times and nodded with a quirky smile. "Yeah, I just forget I need to learn to breathe water before I go on to the more complex liquids."

He blinked then laughed good-naturedly and shook his head. "I didn't mean to be crass."

"Well, you were and it caught me off guard." She met his deep indigo eyes and smirked. "It's always hard to hear that kind of thing about my own sex, even if you are right. But, I mean, you're young. Why do you want to settle down?"

He shrugged and leaned back as he swirled his wine in its glass, watching the deep red glisten in the light. "Because it's the one thing the men in my family never do. Also, it seems like something rather wonderful to wake up with the same woman every morning and know exactly what I need to do to her or say to her to make her happy and actually want to make her happy rather than just content for the evening."

"Sounds very… I want to say romantic, but it really comes off more as secure and protected… If you cut off the last part, you almost don't sound like a player." She teased and noted the twinkle of mischief in his gaze.

"I don't think I'm making a very good impression on you."

"Not if your goal is to get into my pants tonight." She said with equal mirth. "Though you're laying a strong foundation for friendship."

"Ahhh, truth. Funny how that works." He laughed and shook his head.

"So you think Sesshomaru… I'm sorry, is Maru just a shortening of his name?"

"In some ways…" Miroku replied softly and paused for a moment, then met her gaze in all seriousness. "Maru means something loved. Something beloved. Someone beloved. He's our alpha, our pack leader, and that isn't because he's the strongest or has the best fortitude or is the best with people or even that he is the smartest. It's because, when it comes down to it, he's devoted to us. If it were in his power, he'd do what it took to ensure our safety and happiness. And we are devoted to him because of it. He's our beloved. Our friend. It just so happens it's also the tail end of his name so most of the time, people just assume and don't ask."

Sango smiled and nodded softly to him before looking down to her meal. "He's your center. He holds you together."

He watched her a moment before responding. If he was going to let himself fall in love, she'd be the woman he'd choose, but she was right. He was still young. He was still wild… He just wasn't certain his continued fun was worth passing up what he'd always known he needed in his life. "Yeah. That's it."

To feel

is to die

a little every other moment

while every

other moment

is filled overflowing

with grace.

She was curled against his form so tightly he wondered if there was more than an atom's space between their skin. Her long, damp auburn hair was plastered to her brow and clung in places, resembling a spider's web made of fire, to his abdomen and chest. His scent covered her and mingled with hers even deep within her. He tightened his embrace of her and leaned to kiss her, smiling as she sighed and panted into his mouth.

She clung to him with shaking hands, gasping for breath as he rolled onto her once again, already hard, already hot and firm pressed against her belly. She was in heat and her scent called to him even when they were both more than exhausted. He'd come over to ask her if she'd wanted to go up to the Taisho homestead for a month with him and the others and, perhaps, some visitors when he'd smelled her fertility and the question had no longer mattered.

They'd been together for years, but he'd never marked her. He'd never felt the need or desire to and she knew it had everything to do with his pack and with Sesshomaru. He had wanted to make sure that Ayame was accepted before he'd done so and that Sesshomaru wouldn't be hurt by the arrangements that would have to be made and altered. Now there was no question he would mark her as his mate even though she had never intended for it to happen because of her heat. And yet, there was the fact that she'd been in heat before around him and he'd been in control. He'd never actually spilled into her when he'd known she could conceive and now… Now he was making love to her for the fifth time and each time he'd remained in her long after he'd poured his seed deep into her fertile womb. Herein were her confusion and her concern.

He was taking his time. He was savoring her, nearly worshiping her and she was overwhelmed. She knew he'd mark her soon. The fervor and need in their lovemaking was dying down to a slow, aching burn. She arched her throat to him which he nipped and kissed softly before capturing her lips with his, pouring his life into her, fusing their bodies and souls together in a languid, overwhelming motion that was in tandem with his thrusts. Her sounds were like music and he groaned in pure ecstasy. He'd wanted her for so long, wanted her this way, but he was afraid for Maru, his oldest friend. Now Sesshomaru had a chance at happiness and Kouga found he could not wait any longer. He released her mouth and bit her neck deeply, sampling her blood in another kind of kiss. She whimpered and moaned, climaxing around him, forcing him to release within her again at the overwhelming taste of her life and feel of her body so tightly embracing him.

Hours passed. The wound at her neck had healed and she was deeply asleep in his embrace. He was pressed tightly against her back, spooning with her, one hand protectively covering her abdomen and womb while the other cradled her form across her torso. He loved her. There was no question. He'd loved her from the moment he'd met her. She was not a pure blood as he was. He was at the end of the generation before the broken generation and knew of the consequences of mating another pure breed. Her mother had been hanyou and her father had been pure blooded. It was enough human blood to dispel any malady that might have taken hold in her. Every part of her scent told him of how pure and healthy she was. She'd only ever been his. No other man had touched her, nor ever would. And now there was the other he could sense within her. The child. His child. Their child.

He buried his nose in her hair and breathed deeply and tightened his hold on her. She sighed and murmured a barely comprehensible 'I love you' into the night. He smiled and closed his eyes. She'd come with him and his pack to the Taisho homestead. He wasn't going to leave her alone. He wasn't going anywhere without her. Naraku Onigumo be damned.

To feel

is to breathe

when you'd never tried

and never dared

and never hoped

or believed

past a grey

pale place of cold.

He couldn't sleep. He'd tried to sleep, but his heart was heavy. They'd decided that he needed to stay with Jinenji for the night and then, whether the girls agreed or not, they would go to his family's homestead in the Northern mountains. They were going to have to hire the cleaners to take care of his room and sanctuary. He'd made such a mess with his oil paints that paneling, carpeting and even the air filters would have to be replaced because the scent of the chemicals had seeped into everything. They were even going to have to purchase a new piano for him. For this reason, they could not stay in the townhouse and so business would be moved to the Taisho homestead until everything was finished. It was where he and Inuyasha had grown up along with Jinenji. It was there, near his thirteenth birthday that he had met Kouga and Kouga's father who had been he and Inuyasha's sensei. It was there that his mother, father and stepmother had been buried and so, even with all of the good memories, it felt like a cemetery to him.

He sat on the guest bed and brought the pale lavender sweater to his nose again, breathing deep of the woman he so longed to hold near him. It was a strange compulsion. He didn't understand it, but for several hours all he had wanted to do was go to her home and hold her in the way he had when she'd cried in his arms in her kitchen. He wanted to make her feel safe, but he didn't understand why the compulsion was so strong. It took all his metal strength not to follow through with the urge.

He cursed and reached for his cell phone. He scrolled down to her cell number and called it. It rang several times. Voice mail. He hung up and then his phone began to vibrate. Her number. He answered it.

"Kagome?"

"You called me."

"I…" He paused and swallowed thickly. "I wanted you to know I was alright… You looked very frightened before."

"I was. I am." She whispered the words and he could swear he almost tasted her tears. "I thought I was going to watch you die."

"I won't die. I promise I'll be more careful, only, please don't be so sad." He said in soft, calming tones. "It's almost like I can feel your sorrow across the city."

"I'm sorry."

"Don't be."

"I'll try."

He paused a moment, trying to find the words. He knew Miroku would be stopping by to talk to Sango and Chora about joining them at the homestead, but he had the opportunity and he wasn't going to waste it. "We're going away for a month… They need to clean and sanitize my rooms after the oil paints."

"Oh…" She sounded so forlorn. "I understand."

"No, you don't… I mean, I want you and your sisters to come with us. I know that…"

"Yes." She breathed, interrupting him.

"I… You would like to come?" He asked with wide but hopeful eyes.

"Yes." He thought he could hear her smiling. "When do we need to be ready?"

"Tomorrow morninging… Can Chora be moved easily?"

"It will take some coaxing. Maybe some alcohol or some sedatives, but it can be done… We'll be ready."

He smiled and bent his head slightly. "We will be there by eleven in the morning… You should sleep, Kagome. You sound tired."

"So do you."

"Goodnight."

"Goodnight." He closed the phone and lay back onto Jinenji's guest bed. Sleep came easily then.

To feel

is to open

and lay prone

to the world invading

defiling and murdering

burning away

any innocence

but leaving fertility

in a virgin womb.

Her hands were still resting on the keys, though they were trembling. She reached up and clung to him, one hand slipping into his snowy hair as he kissed her. So deeply. So very deeply. She could barely breathe.

She was in his arms. He was carrying her. She was still crying. It had been so long since she'd sung anything. So long since her voice had resonated through each note, each word as it had poured from her. So long since she'd been so inspired. It was a new song. A song that came from her, from her beloveds, from the world. She had never understood before. She had asked her mother about her gifts, but the Morrigain had said it was impossible to explain, and so she'd never begun to understand what her gifts might be like… And now she knew. She could feel everything. All of them. She was connected to them and she was connected to him. And he was kissing her so very deeply, like he wanted to slip into her soul through their mouths and tangled tongues.

She was on her bed and he was resting gently on top of her. He was undressing her. His rough touch wandering along her soft, pale skin. She shuddered and sighed into his mouth, but did not protest. When her soul had touched his, something primal had flared. Something known and true and earth shattering. She belonged to him and he to her. There was no question in her mind and, suddenly, achingly, she needed to be with him, as closely with him as was physically possible.

His clothing was gone. Her clothing was gone. He couldn't remember undressing them, but he had. Their breathing was erratic, gasping into each other's mouths, unwilling to break their deep kiss. He'd felt her. He'd felt her soul touch his and he'd known, somehow understood that he never needed to search again. He'd found her. He'd found his place within her. His place. His Chora.

There was urgency and need in every touch and grasp. Every motion was one of want and need mingled into a heated desire they could not suppress. They were one. A strangled, beautiful cry broke through their kiss and she arched as he tore into her.

"I'm sorry, Baby." He gasped and began kissing over every part of her face, drinking away her tears. "I'm sorry… I'm sorry…"

"Kiss me… Please kiss me." She wept softly and then, again, lost herself in his kiss. Pleasure came soon after. And again. And again. Over and over it came between them until she lost count and barely noticed the passage between climaxes.

Sleep came with the dawn and through a crack in the curtains came a sliver of morning light. It penetrated a spinning prism just above the bright bed and splashed rainbows over their skin and faces that neither noticed in their dreaming.


	9. Chapter 9

9-

_**I do not own Inuyasha.**_

(More gracious thanks to my beta, Langus, for her wonderful help and insightful comments.)

There were only two words that could've explained her current predicament. She'd awoken wrapped in the kind of warmth only the flesh of another could bring; with silvery, snow white hair draped like a silken blanket across her skin and one arm wrapped loosely around her abdomen. He cradled her so tenderly she almost ached. Those two words ran quickly through her mind and made her heart race.

"Oh shit…"

The arms tightened around her and she fought it for a moment before a gentle, rumbling sound akin to a growl vibrated through her torso.

"Chora, calm down."

His voice was so gentle. Every touch and hold he had on her was so very, very gentle and tender and warm. Her breathing slowed and her panic died down to weariness that manifested itself in the faint trembling of her slight form.

"Are you with me?" He asked softly against her neck near her ear. She nodded in response.

"Do you regret what happened?" She paused a moment, then shook her head in negation.

"Then why are you panicking?"

She rolled slowly onto her back and looked up into his sleepy, warm golden eyes only to have her breath come out in a shaky, staggering flow. She shook her head again and her lavender eyes shimmered with unshed tears.

Frowning at her response, he leaned down and kissed her brow reverently. She looked like a frightened, broken baby bird in his hands and he did not want her as such. "Are you afraid for Kagome, Sango or Rin? Or what they might say?"

Again she shook her head and the tears fell from her eyes. His frown deepened as he leaned in to gently kiss her lips. "This isn't about some guy you got back home or anything, is it? I know from last night I'm the only guy you've…"

"There's no one but you." She said the words softly, but there was a harshness behind them. With a pensive frown she reached up and smoothed his hair. As an after thought she used a finger to trace his ears and smiled faintly when he leaned into her touch. His frown slowly faded to be replaced by a crooked grin.

"There's never going to be anyone but you," she promised. "Ravens mate for life, Inuyasha."

"I'm not a mistake, am I?"

There was so much vulnerability in his voice that it actually hurt her on a physical level to hear it. She drew him down into a deep kiss, trying to dispel any doubts that might have overcome him in that moment. "No. I felt your soul, Inuyasha… I heard it singing with mine. You're not a mistake. You're probably the only right thing I've ever done in my whole life."

It was his turn to let out a shaky breath. He leaned his brow against hers and brushed away the trail of tears that'd fallen into her hair. "Then why did you wake up so panicked? Why the tears?"

She began to tremble again. He drew her tightly against him and held her there until she was ready to answer him. "He died to save my life, Inuyasha. He sacrificed himself to save me because I froze and couldn't get off the stage. Every one else got off the stage safely, but I couldn't move. The world started to crash in onto me and I couldn't move… What right do I have to go on living when I'm the reason he's dead? I don't deserve to be happy the way you're making me happy."

He smirked and shook his head slightly. "Look at me. Look into my eyes and listen to me."

She obeyed reluctantly, but even still it took several moments before she could raise her gaze to meet his.

"I don't know what kind of messed up logic you and my dumb-ass brother and your silly-ass sister have got racing through your minds, but at least yours is going to stop right here and right now. We don't get to decide what we deserve. We can't make that call. Only the people who know us best can and even then, their word isn't law. Deserving is what people made up so they could feel better about themselves or in order to berate themselves when they fail so they have a reason to stop. And I don't accept that."

She sobbed in response, but he continued despite her tears. "More importantly than that, your brother died to save you so you could go on living. He didn't die so you could kill yourself slowly by being cooped up and terrified of the world. Morgan wouldn't want this for you and neither do I. I think him and me, if we'd ever met, we would've agreed on that. And what's more, last night I told you I thought I was falling in love with you. I was wrong. I've already fallen; fallen and hit so hard I've lost my senses."

He offered her a crooked smile and kissed her reverently before brushing her long hair back off her face. "We're each other's now and I'm not letting you stay in the dark anymore, Chora. We'll take small steps first then move to the bigger ones, but I'm not letting you hide away anymore. The world needs to hear you sing again and they should know who you're singing for."

Her blush was nearly burning her cheeks at his final words. She reached up and traced his jaw in a slow, deliberate stroke that led her fingers to his lips. There they traced the crooked smile she was already growing to love and knew she would adore until the day she died.

"I love you."

Her whispered confession was filled with awe and wonder and her eyes sparkled for him in a way he'd never seen before. He leaned into her hand and lowered his lips to hers for a tender, slow, meaningful kiss. He had no intention of letting her out of bed for the duration of the morning, or the afternoon for that matter. As their lips tasted one another she opened her legs so he could rest between them. Pliant and responsive she arched her hips against his so their pelvises aligned to signal the start of an ancient dance. As he mimicked her movements with a roll of his hips he smiled inwardly at the knowledge that she ached for him as greatly as he did for her.

The sudden intruding sound of a wasp storm broke them out of their reverie and he pulled away from her welcome embrace with an irritated sound. "What the hell?"

She looked over to where the piercing sound had originated and frowned. "Your pants are vibrating," she observed, her voice deadpan.

"So it would seem." With a regretful sigh he disengaged himself from her arms and incredibly welcoming body to retrieve the culprit. Snatching his phone up from his pants pocket, he opened it with a frown. After a quick glance at the time his eyes widened.

"Oh fuck… Fuck!"

She joined him next to his pants and with an arm slinked around his waist peered over his shoulder to see what had him so agitated. "Forty seven missed calls and just as many messages? Yash…"

"I didn't let them know where I was."

She smiled faintly, understanding without him saying another word. He was as tightly intertwined with his pack as she was with hers. One night without word was as good as a warning bell that something was wrong. She leaned in and kissed his neck gently, then his lips when he turned and wrapped an arm around her hips.

"Take care of yours and I'll run a shower. Give them my apologies for distracting you all night."

"You realize it's only fifteen minutes 'til noon?"

She offered him a crooked grin of her own. "So it is. Well we did have a _very_ long night..."

He watched her turn away and admired the way her long golden hair brushed against her perfect form as she walked to the private bath. Once the door shut gently behind her he let out a wistful sigh. Well that settled it - he was one lucky asshole.

"That we did."

--

The limo had been packed with the essentials that weren't already present at the estate. They were all present, even Ayame whose scent spoke of her impending motherhood. He'd given her and Kouga his congratulations and promised they'd discuss any new arrangements that needed to be made once they were out of the city. Internally he felt a faint pang of loneliness, but knew it was nothing like what he would've felt had Kagome not come into his life. With her he had a chance at the kind of happiness he now saw in the rest of his pack and that chance was enough to still any lingering aches or jealousy.

As the limo headed to the home of the four women they would be bringing with them to the isolated homestead it was unusually quiet. Everyone could sense the tension emanating from him and shared quiet, knowing glances amongst themselves. They knew exactly what the source of his tension and worry was, as it was the source of theirs as well.

His phone buzzed loudly in the heavy silence of the limo and he answered it without hesitation. "Speak."

"It's me." Inuyasha's voice sounded guilty enough, but there was something else there as well. He almost sounded… pleased.

"Where in all the hells are you?" Sesshomaru couldn't help the agitation and anger that colored his outburst.

"Are you already on your way?"

"Yes. What does that have to do-?"

"Good. I'll see you in about twenty minutes then."

Sesshomaru blinked then scowled. His sour expression caught the attention of the limo's other occupants almost immediately. They all were upset over Inuyasha's sudden disappearance the night before. When he hadn't called for a car, Shippo had gone through the trouble of checking to see if his credit card had been used to pay for a cab. They'd all assumed he'd return home late, hell, even Shippo and Miroku hadn't returned from their meetings with Rin and Sango until well after midnight, but Inuyasha seemed to have disappeared. When they'd woken up that morning only to find that he still hadn't returned panic immediately set in. They'd called Kagome but she hadn't seen him leave. No one had thought for a moment that he'd still been present in the house.

"You are at the sister's home?"

There was a very long pause before Inuyasha responded to his very simple question. "Yes. Chora wanted me to give you all her apologies. I'm sorry too. I didn't mean to be so reckless. We just - we got caught up is all."

"With what?"

"You know what, Maru. And if you're keen insight hasn't led you to that conclusion already, your nose will once you and the others get here."

Sesshomaru went silent and his scowl faded slowly. He wasn't as angry or upset as he felt he should be. Inuyasha had all but just told him what had occurred between him and the girl. In addition to that he'd admitted that not only had he not called, but he hadn't even thought of calling. He should've been annoyed, and upset. He should've felt at least a twinge of real jealousy or loss, but he was at peace with it.

"Make sure she's ready to go, Inuyasha. We will be there soon."

He snapped his phone shut and met the curious gazes of his pack mates with a faint smile before leaning back against the car seat. No doubt with their youkai hearing they'd heard every word of the conversation.

"So he's there?" Miroku asked with a mischievous twinkle in his gaze.

"Yes you hopeless letch, he's there."

"Did he say why, Maru?" The monk pressed with a smirk tugging at his lips.

Sesshomaru turned his gaze to his friend and raised a brow. "If you wish to know what occurred between them Miroku, you will have to ask Inuyasha himself."

"But he did say…"

"Not in so many words."

Shippo smirked and shook his head. "Rin will never let this one go."

"Neither will you or Miroku, kit." The inuyoukai met the kitsune's gaze and he smirked faintly. "None of us should, really."

"So we can torment the hell out of them, you mean?" Shippo asked, trying to hold back the excitement in his voice.

"After the panic we all went through this morning, yes. I think Inuyasha at least should face this penance. Leave Chora to her sisters. She's made no transgression against her pack. Any change in her with regards to Inuyasha and the world outside their home may come as more of a blessing than a reason to be upset. Inuyasha's vanishing act though deserves all the retribution we can heap upon him."

"Sesshomaru… Are you actually being playful?" Kouga inquired with a wicked grin. He kept his voice was low so as not to awaken Ayame who'd fallen asleep with her head resting on his chest.

"No Kouga, playful I reserve for other occasions. This…" He paused a moment and a dangerous smile lit his lips. "This is most definitely vindictive."

--

She'd intended on waking Chora at the last minute, throwing her clothing into a duffle bag, and shipping her out of the house while she was still groggy and therefore less likely to put up a fuss. For that reason she'd delayed waking her while she, Sango and Rin had been packing for the month long stay at Sesshomaru's family homestead. She'd made a full pot of coffee and enough extra to fill a thermos to help Chora wake up once they'd begun the trip. Breakfast sandwiches of fried eggs, bacon, cheese, tomatoes and chives had been made and wrapped in wax paper for each of them, along with food for lunch and low-sugar snacks for Rin. Sango and Kagome had determined that they did not need to deal with a hyperactive, feral chipmunk on their car ride and, strangely, Rin had agreed.

Kagome was still somewhat troubled over the somewhat frantic phone call she'd received from Sesshomaru that morning concerning the whereabouts of his brother. He hadn't returned the night before and when he didn't turn up that morning his pack had started to worry about him. She understood completely of course. Had Rin, Sango or Chora gone missing without word, she would've panicked as well.

He'd told her to get ready in any case. They'd locate Inuyasha eventually. It was always possible he'd just gone on a bender, even though that was very unlike him. And with him only being gone less than twenty-four hours, it wasn't likely the police would be of any help.

Realizing it was nearly time to leave, Kagome ventured upstairs to wake Chora only to hear her sister's shower already running. She smiled softly and nodded to herself before turning around and walking back downstairs. In the kitchen she found the coffee Rin had kindly warmed up for her ready and waiting on the counter.

None of them had gotten much sleep the previous night, so even with the added caffeine Rin was not her usual bouncy self. She was far too exhausted to be that perky. A loud crash resonated from the room above the kitchen had all three sisters looking up with a start. Rin, in her sleepy stupor, jerked so abruptly she spilled hot coffee all over her hand. "Shit!" she yelped with pained tears welling up in her eyes. Sango moved quickly to put her hand under the tap before turning the cold water on.

"It doesn't look too bad," she said soothingly as the water rushed over Rin's reddened skin.

"Ouchie! Tell that to my lobster red skin, San! What was that anyway?" Rin cast her eyes towards the ceiling as Kagome rushed over with a make shift cold pack she'd constructed out of ice cubes from the freezer and a sandwich bag wrapped in a paper towel.

"I have no idea, Mei Mei. Keep your hand under there a few more minutes and then let San check the burn and put the cold pack on it. I hope to high hell sleepy head didn't trip and fall getting out of the shower." Kagome said with an eye roll. She was attempting to bring some levity to the situation but the worry underlying her tone gave her away.

Seeing that Rin was okay in Sango's hands, she rushed up the stairs and burst into Chora's room only to find a naked Inuyasha helping a limping and equally naked Chora to her bed. The three stopped and stared open mouthed at each other before it registered in Kagome's mind just what she was seeing.

"Oh! I… There was a thump and I… Ok, you're naked so I'm going to just, uh, go back downstairs and help with Rin's burn…"

She'd turned and was almost out the door when Chora spoke up. "Rin's burnt?"

"Coffee… The thump startled her…" Kagome answered while doing her best to avert her eyes. Hearing a rustle of clothes and a buzz of zippers being done up, she turned back to unabashedly stare at Chora, who was now on her bed in a robe checking a nasty bruise forming on her hip, and Inuyasha, who was fumbling with his fly while attempting to speedily dress himself. She blinked and met their embarrassed gazes in turn, before focusing entirely on Inuyasha.

"Do you even realize how worried your brothers were? Especially Sesshomaru? He called me this morning all worked up because he had no idea where you were and now I find you naked in my sister's room. What, did you two just finish a nice long screw in the shower?"

Looking abashed, Inuyasha put up his hands in surrender and attempted to restore some sense of calm to the situation. "Kagome, look…"

"Don't you dare 'Kagome, look' me, Taisho Inuyasha!" Kagome's fists were firmly planted on her hips as she glared him down.

"I don't give a damn how this all happened. Chora has a good head on her shoulders and she knows what's right for her and I know you couldn't have taken advantage of her if she didn't want you to." With that she gave a nod towards her sister who smiled faintly, if a little red faced in return.

"You're both so… googley-eyed over each other I kind of saw this coming," she admitted in defeat. "And truth be told, I'm glad." She turned her gaze from her entirely embarrassed and crimson faced sister who was gaping at her from the bed to Inuyasha. "Goddess knows you might bring her back into the world better than we ever could… But that isn't the point!"

"Then what is?" He asked and was instantly sorry when her stormy blue eyes narrowed at him once more. He saw a strange sadness in her gaze that he'd seen before but hadn't been able to understand. This morning there was disappointment there too.

"If you don't know what my point is Yash, then you sure as hell don't deserve the family who've been worrying about you since they realized you were gone last night. You go off talking about kismet and opening myself up to loving someone again-!"

"Kagome… I got caught up. We got caught up…," Inuyasha offered with an apologetic shrug, to which she rolled her eyes and groaned emphatically.

"Why the hell am I even making this my business? Oh, yeah, because you're the guy who fucked my sister and who, by all rights and her way of thinking, is now my brother-in-law. Or didn't you know?"

"I know," he whispered harshly. "Don't judge whether or not I'll be a good mate to your sister based on the fact that I forgot to call my pack last night to tell them I was planning on spending the night."

Kagome stared up at him in mild disbelief as he slowly approached her. Standing in front of her, he held her gaze and reached out and gently rested a hand on her arm. "I love Chora. The fact that I did something stupid doesn't change that. You know for damned sure that love makes you do stupid things Kagome, so don't fault me for it."

"He was so worried…"

"I know, I got in touch with him already. I'm already gonna catch enough hell from them so I'd appreciate not getting it from you too."

She smiled a sad little smile and shrugged her shoulders in defeat before he pulled away. "Go check on Rin. Sounds like the little chipmunk needs some tending. Chora and I will be down in a few minutes."

"Ok," she replied and turned to the door. She paused as she was closing it behind her and watched as Inuyasha tenderly ran his hand through Chora's wet hair.

"Inuyasha…," she called softly, feeling somewhat guilty for disturbing the heartfelt scene. He looked up at her with a lingering smile on his lips. "Thank you."

"For what?"

"You know what," she replied before closing the door fully behind her and practically skipping down the stairs. In the kitchen she came upon a pouting Rin, who was whimpering as Sango put burn ointment on the rapidly blistering patch of skin on her hand.

"San, she should go to the ER…"

"I know. Hopefully the boys won't be too put out." Sango looked up from her ministrations and Rin began to sniffle. Sango took one look at her sister's pathetic expression and sighed. "Rinny… It's okay, Mei Mei. How much sleep did you get last night?"

"I didn't… Shippo dropped me off and I went to my studio and painted," Rin responded with large, glassy, owl eyes.

"Did the kit hype you up on caffeine or sugar last night?" Kagome asked with concern. The last thing she needed was someone to encourage her little sister in the ways of the rabid chipmunk.

Rin shook her head. "I had some coffee, but not a lot. It was all me last night. Ouch!"

"Oh! I'm sorry, Rinny," Sango apologized and leaned in to kiss her sister's cheek.

"S'ok, Jie Jie," Rin replied and grasped Kagome's hand as she took a seat across the table from them. "What was the thump?"

Kagome blinked and sighed before she spoke. "Inuyasha must have dropped Chora."

"What?!" Sango demanded a bit too loudly, then frowned and spoke more softly. "Say that again?"

"Inuyasha and Chora were… Well, what do you _think_ they were doing upstairs in the bathroom that would cause him to drop her on her ass?"

"Inuyasha's here? With Chora?" Rin asked sheepishly, then her eyes widened with understanding. "They had sex!"

The two elder girls groaned and Kagome actually let her head thump against the table. "Yes, Mei Mei, they had sex." She looked up wearily from the table and rubbed her temples. "And I definitely have a headache."

"You don't…"

"I know I don't. But I do and I have for the last few days. Nasty, unbelievable headaches. This one I caused, but it's been building since this morning after Sesshomaru called and told me Inuyasha was missing."

"So they had sex…," Rin reiterated just because it was fun to say it out loud.

"Yes, Mei Mei, they had sex," Kagome repeated a bit more sharply than she'd intended. Seeing Rin's startled look she gave her an apologetic smile.

"Does he love her? I mean, Chora wouldn't have if she didn't mean to be with him forever, but does he love her too?"

Kagome couldn't miss the hopeful look in both her older and younger sisters' eyes. She smiled faintly. "He says he does and I believe him."

"Well, that's great news right?" Sango asked softly, noting the worry in Kagome's eyes.

"Yeah, it's great, it's just… This changes a lot, doesn't it? For all of us, not just them. We chose to live together here because of Chora, not just because of the money. Now that she'll have Inuyasha, I can't help but wonder what that will mean for the rest of us. Japan's pretty small compared to the U.S., but still…"

"Kagome." She looked up and met both of her sister's gazes in turn, but ended up focusing on Rin who had called out to her. "We aren't going anywhere. Not for a hell of a long time. You aren't going to have to go at this alone, I promise you."

"Rinny… Thank you." Kagome whispered and leaned into Sango as her elder sister reached out to embrace her. "I love you all so much."

"We love you too. Forever. No matter what!" Sango breathed into her sister's hair. "Now, let's get Rinny bandaged up so we can just run in and have someone check her burn at the hospital."

Kagome nodded and went to pour the rest of the coffee into another thermos, but paused when her youngest sister vehemently shook her head. "What is it, Rin?"

Rin shot the pot of coffee a menacing glare. "That coffee is my enemy. I don't want to take it with us."

"Ok, yeah. Never again are you going a full night without sleep. You get even weirder than when you are on one of your sugar binges," Kagome said in both play and truth as she poured the dark, steaming liquid into a thermos.

"It burnt me! It will burn me again! It's so shifty… And… And dark!" Rin's eyes regained their glossy, owlish look and Sango sighed with a shake of her head.

"Rinny, it's ok. You don't have to drink it."

"It will still be there… It's just waiting for its chance to get me!" Rin's eyes opened wide as a sugary doughnut was placed on a napkin in front of her. She darted her gaze up at Kagome. "You're giving me sugar? What's wrong with you?"

"I prefer you on a sugar high. At least then you only paint all over everything instead of giving purpose and life to inanimate objects and food," she stated simply before returning to packing their food for the trip.

Rin looked down and considered the chocolate glazed doughnut. "You're on my side, oh sweet sugary confection… Right?"

Sango groaned as she finished bandaging Rin's hand and Kagome shook her head. She happened to glance out the kitchen window just as Sesshomaru's limo pulled up in front of their house.

"It's just going to be one of those days."

--

There were tears. Streaming, rolling, rivers of tears and they wouldn't stop. Chora gripped the banister and shook her head frantically from side to side. "I can't… Yash, I can't!" she pleaded tearily.

"You can, Baby," he said evenly, gesturing with his hand for her to come forward.

After twenty minutes of beckoning her down the stairs his patience was wearing thin. All he wanted to do was throw her over his shoulder, kicking and screaming if need be, but he knew that would only serve to traumatize her. Shippo was standing patiently at the door waiting with Kagome. All of their bags had already been packed into the trunk of the limo or the passenger compartment, where a still petulant Rin was fussing over her injured hand and Sango was trying her best to keep everyone entertained, including Sesshomaru who'd been staring at the entryway since they'd arrived.

Inuyasha couldn't see his brother's gaze, but he could feel it on the back of his head and it was driving the poor hanyou to distraction when all of his focus should've been on getting his mate out the door. Reaching out, he gently covered one of her hands with his. She shook her head stubbornly and whimpered as she tried to shy away from the door. With a frown he closed the distance between them and embraced her trembling form. Holding her close against his chest, he kissed her neck before speaking against it in soothing tones.

"I don't want to force you, Chora but I'm going to my family estate with my pack and I'm not going to leave here without you. No way in hell. But I also don't want to force you kicking and screaming out of this house, not only for the sake of my ears, but also because I know you'd never trust me again and I won't have that. You just have to crawl into my arms and burry your pretty face into my shoulder and I'll carry you out there. I won't let anything happen to you, Baby."

Shippo watched the interaction between the pair with interest. He'd never seen Inuyasha so patient or gentle with anyone ever. His eyes fell on Kagome and noted the tension in her form. He couldn't imagine what was going through the woman's mind except that this was the first time, in a very long time, that the raven hanyou was close to exiting the beautiful home that'd become their prison. He noticed the faint smile that touched Kagome's lips and he looked back to see Chora tentatively curling into Inuyasha's embrace. She was still weeping and kept her face pressed surely into the inuhanyou's neck, but at least she wasn't clinging to the banister any longer.

"Ready, Baby?" Inuyasha breathed and when she nodded tentatively against his neck he moved quickly out the door, holding her tight to his chest.

Kagome armed the alarm and bolted the door before nodding to Shippo and the two of them followed the hanyous to the limo. Kagome sat near Sango who was currently glaring at the monk Miroku, who happened to be sporting a rather nice red hand print on his cheek. After a moment her eyes fell on Inuyasha who was still cradling Chora.

"It's okay, it's okay…" He repeated over and over again into her ear as he caressed her and planted comforting kisses against her brow. She was shaking visibly now and sobbing softly with her face hidden against Inuyasha's shoulder.

"Don't let go yet, ok?" Chora managed to choke out and clung tighter to him when he nodded in agreement.

"I promise. Not until you're ready," he murmured and then looked to his brother who was watching them impassively. Inuyasha knew of course that Sesshomaru was anything but impassive at the moment. "Can we pull into the overhang when we get there by the kitchen? It might be easier, Maru…"

Sesshomaru nodded slightly. "It is what was planned, Inuyasha," he replied with a faint chill in his voice that Inuyasha knew was meant only for him. The inuyoukai's hard gaze turned and fell on Kagome who was sitting on the other side of Rin next to Sango. His eyes widened when she abruptly slapped the younger one's uninjured hand.

"Stop picking at it."

"It itches and it hurts!" Rin whined pitifully and looked even more like a child than a woman, if that was possible. "Ome…"

Kagome sighed and cradled the girl against her gently. She smiled faintly and ran her fingers through Rin's silky, ebony hair. "It's been years since you called me that. When was the last time? Oh, right. We were in New York. You were making canvases and cut two of your fingers because you were being careless."

"I wasn't being careless, Ome! I was on the last of a sugar high."

"You were so scared. You sounded like you thought they were only attached with a bit of tendon. All it took was going to the hospital to get a couple of stitches." Kagome laughed faintly at the memory and looked down at her sister's petulant face. "Thank Goddess I was there with Chora and Morgan for a tour, right? You're ok, Mei Mei," she said reassuringly, "There's not even any blood this time."

Rin nodded and sighed, curling tighter against her older sister. Chora looked up and watched Kagome as she focused all of her attention on the younger girl, smoothing her hair, singing to her softly. The raven hanyou looked to her eldest sister and held Sango's gaze with a meaningful look. They'd both noticed it and did not need to elaborate upon it. It was the first time Kagome had said Morgan's name without falling into memory or sadness since the day he'd been taken from her.

The limo pulled away from the house with its occupants oddly silent. It drove a sadly familiar route to the hospital where Kagome, Rin and Shippo made their way into the Emergency Room so the doctors could take a quick look at the younger girl's hand.

Kagome had been dutifully ignoring Kouga during their ride, making a point to focus solely on Rin and the small conversations going on around her. She didn't even look at him, but more than once her gaze flitted to Sesshomaru and she would smile warmly whenever their eyes met. Being a fairly regular visitor to the hospital because of Sesshomaru, Shippo was able to ferry the girls past a long waiting line to see a doctor. After a quick check, the doctor prescribed a salve to help the healing process and prevent scarring.

From the limo Sesshomaru kept his eyes trained on the hospital the whole time the girls were inside. He doggedly ignored the stares of the others in the car and only turned partially when he heard the sound of Ayame's phone ringing with some inane pop song melody.

The girl stirred herself awake and her mate frowned as she pulled out her phone, equipped with several cute phone charms dangling off of it, and pressed it to her ear.

"Narita Ayame…" Her tone was tired and sounded vaguely annoyed. She'd left orders at her office explicitly stating she was not to be bothered unless it was an absolute emergency. Her brow raised and her lips thinned as she listened to the person on the other end of the line.

"It's been a year since I had my last vacation, Aiko! You can tell them that I'll be back on call in a week for consultation via vid-link."

She let out a staggering sigh and leaned back against her seat with one hand pressed to her forehead. She took care to ignore the slowly building anger in her mate despite feeling the way his body was steadily tensing beside her.

"Naraku-sama can go to hell. I took his company's caseload five years ago, Aiko. Five damned years ago. I know everything about what the blowhard does with his advertising. That's what I do! That's what I've been doing practically every other minute for the last five… I know I didn't give him a week's notice I was taking a vacation! I shouldn't have to! Aiko, listen to me, ok?"

Ayame sat up suddenly and bore a hole with her gaze into the empty seat across from her. "Are you calm? Good. Are you listening? Better… You are my assistant. You cannot possibly know what's going on with that account because not only am I the only person who works it at the office, I also took all of Naraku-sama's account files with me. If he calls again, tell him that everything is paid up and taken care of. No deal of his is being unattended, I'm simply taking a vacation. If he gives you any more trouble, tell the fucker that he can jump out of his pretty pent-house window for all I goddamn care. I'm not one of his flunkies and I'm most certainly not one of his whores he has under his employ…!"

After a brief pause she took a deep breath and let it out slowly. "No, Aiko, I'm fine. You just woke me up from a nap is all." She smiled faintly as Kouga began to massage the tension out of her shoulders and back.

"Yes, you have my permission to call forward him to my voicemail if his number comes up at the front desk. I know… And if he comes in and proposes that again, you have my permission to both knee him in the groin and call security. Aiko, you don't have to take shit from any man… Yes, not even the powerful, scary, influential types... Okay, Aiko. Be good and try not to let yourself get so riled up. I'll be in touch."

She closed her phone with a quiet sigh and looked at the rather proud looking wolf sitting next to her. With a smile she playfully elbowed him in the ribs.

"Hey, now! I didn't wake you up from your nap."

After making sure to silence her ringer, she slipped her phone back into her purse and curled against him once more. He reached down to gently caress her legs where they sat draped comfortably over his lap.

"How long have you wanted me to get rid of Naraku Onigumo as one of my clients?"

Kouga chuckled and kissed the crown of her head. "Since the first day you took him on. Why?"

"When's your birthday?"

"You know when…"

"Just tell me. I'm too tired to think right now, which is your fault I might add," she responded with a playful scowl sent in his direction.

"In two months." He murmured into her hair.

"Then we'll call my sending his files back to him at the end of this week and terminating my contract with him your early birthday present."

She looked up and met his shocked expression with a smirk. "You knock me up last night and you honestly expect me to keep working for that hard-ass? I don't sleep or eat enough as it is. I don't need to be pregnant and working for him too. I'm not going to risk the safety of our child just for that jerk. He causes me far too much stress! There isn't enough money in the world that could convince me to keep him on now, Kouga."

"What was all that talk about whores?" Miroku piped up from his corner of the limo.

Ayame chuckled and glanced to the monk. "Cool it, Miroku. I'm talking about Kikyo, Tsubaki, Kanna and Kagura."

"I thought you were all friends," Inuyasha objected. He frowned slightly, noticing the tension in Chora, who seemed to be having a silent conversation with an equally tense looking Sango.

"I thought so too," she replied sadly. "Yesterday morning I had a meeting with Naraku in his office, just to talk about that new game he's been advertising… In any case, I get there and the four of them were just lounging around. Kanna was sitting on his knee like he was a chair and the whole office smelling exactly like I'd walked into an orgy. The five of them had to have been at it for… Kami knows how long before I got there. I'd sort of always known, and you all had hinted at it as well, but I never knew for sure until that moment. They'd just been using me to get closer to the four of you. I knew Naraku was devious, but they'd always been so kind to me I had trouble believing it was possible, but now I know it was just an act."

"What was just an act?" Kagome's voice chimed in as she and a still pouting Rin, followed by Shippo climbed into the limo. Without thinking twice about it, she immediately sat next to Sesshomaru, much to his pleasure.

Ayame raised a hand and dismissed her question with a wave. "The nice act a few former friends were playing on me for their boss, most likely to get to the Taisho pack. It doesn't really matter. They're out of my life and in a week, their boss will be too."

She smiled warmly to Kagome and extended her hand. "I think I must've been asleep when you and your sisters got in. My name's Narita Ayame."

Kagome extended her hand carefully and grasped Ayame's with a faint smile. "Kagome Higurashi. Chora Dane's the one making Inuyasha into a chair, Sango Sato's the serious one and Rin Inoue here is the petulant - I mean, cute one fussing over her hand."

Rin stuck her tongue out at Kagome and Ayame chuckled softly. "I always found it interesting that European tradition puts the family name after the given name while, in Asian cultures we usually put the family name first."

"I guess it reflects the importance of the name," Kagome mused, her smile warming slowly. "For a long while the last name of a person was determined by their family or clan trade. What they did mattered less than who they were, I suppose. Some names even meant 'the son of' whoever their sire was. For those groups the given name held the most importance. It embodied all the hopes and dreams of the parents. I guess in America it matters even less where a person comes from. Nearly everyone there is an immigrant family with very little ancestral ties to the land, well, compared to the Native Americans at least."

"So do you know what your given name means?" Ayame asked with amusement. The woman was so frank with her questions that Kagome instantly liked her. With a shrug she shook her head and smirked. "My father liked it, was all. My mother liked the name Elizabeth, so they gave them both to me."

"Kouga told me you're all from the United States." Ayame frowned as Kouga gently cleared his throat and gripped her hand.

"What?" she demanded incredulously as she met her mate's gaze.

"We were all born and raised there, yes," Sango replied softly with a warm smile. "My father, Rin's father and Kagome's father were all from here though. They went to the United States for the financial opportunities. There they met Chora's father and became fast friends."

"How did they meet your mothers?" Ayame asked, oblivious to the tension in the males seated in the limo around her. Even if she'd been awake enough to notice, she wouldn't have cared.

Rin smiled, her eyes sparkling with mirth. "They saw them dancing. Auntie Morrigain was a famous singer in New York. She'd put together a dancing troupe, choosing the best of the best from shows she'd seen, offering them the opportunity to work for her. Aunt Lilly, Kagome's mother, choreographed the dances and Aunt Cynthia, Sango's mother, was in charge of the lighting and background music. My mother, Tessa, took care of the set design."

"Our fathers saw them on Broadway in New York and were… very persistent," Chora added with amusement in her voice as she slipped off of Inuyasha's lap to sit beside him. Steady conversation began to flow between them as the limo maneuvered its way through the streets and slowly guided them out of the city.

"Dad said that it was like watching four angels on stage, calling out to them with their eyes." Kagome laughed softly at the memory and shook her head. "Good thing each guy had an eye for a different girl or else that would've been a hell of a mess."

"They called it fate, then?" Ayame asked, again meeting Kagome's eyes.

"Not really," Kagome conceded with veiled amusement. "Our fathers didn't believe in fate."

"But our mothers did," Chora chimed in softly with the ghost of a smile on her lips.

Kagome smiled and leaned back against the seat. As an afterthought she gently took Sesshomaru's hand between hers and pulled it to rest on her lap. Satisfied for the moment, she closed her eyes and agreed.

"Yes, they did."


	10. Chapter 10

10-

(Langus, thank you from the deepest part of me for your patience and beautiful editing work. You have given me the courage to post this even when I still question my own ability.

To all those who have held in there with me, there are no words except this chapter is for you. Your unwavering support and friendship mean the world.)

10-

"Mommy, there's men outside**!**"

Rin blushed with embarrassment as the soft din of dinner being made ground to a halt and all the adults turned their attention toward her. Even Morgan**,** who always paid the most attention to Kagome or Chora**, **had his eyes trained on her. Rin was so often forgotten because of her pint-size and quiet demeanor. Her fondness for slipping into daydreams and worlds made from paints and colored charcoal meant that more often than not, she spoke softly if at all.

Startled by the intensity of the many pairs of eyes directed her way, she lowered her eyes to the floor and spoke softly, "They are c-coming to the door."

"Sango."

The elder girl looked up from her algebra homework and met her father's eyes. "Yes, Daddy?"

"Take your sisters and hide in the closet. Stay there until we come to get you and keep them quiet."

Sango looked perplexed and stood, studying the man whose words she had never before questioned. He looked strained. Her uncles and aunts and mother looked strained**;** and worried too. The only one who looked even remotely calm was Morgan.

"What's wrong?" she demanded, her clear eyes taking in the foreboding expressions around her.

"Don't ask questions, Luv," Auntie Morrigain said softly in her lilting, musical voice. Her eyes were severe and the pale lavender had an ominous indigo ring forming at the boarder of her irises. She spoke again in the soft rolling and singing language their whole extended family spoke when at home. It would have seemed strange to speak anything but Gaelic in their sanctuary.

"Take Kagome and Chora and Rin and do as your Da asked."

Sango nodded and put her hand out to Rin who did as she was told without question. Chora and Kagome were looking from each other**,** to the Morrigain and Morgan in silent question. Morgan kissed their cheeks in response and caressed Kagome's hair.

"Go, my sweet girls. Be silent and still."

It took a final reassuring nod from Morgan for all four girls to comply. Sango took them to the closet down the hall and closed the door all the way. She closed her eyes tightly and did not look back at her three sisters as they held on to each other, Kagome and Chora cradling the smaller Rin.

**T**here was a loud crash as the front door was knocked off its hinges and Sango couldn't help but open the closet a crack. She gasped and her eyes widened in disbelief at the scene unfolding outside.

The inhibitor anklet fell from the Morrigain's hand with a dull clunk to the floor. Her pale auburn hair began to bleed black from its roots and Sango watched, stunned, as the faierie goddess transformed from a fair, pale woman to a raven-haired banshee. Even her beautiful violet eyes had turned dark. Her nails became long**,** black talons and raven feathers began to sprout from the skin of her arms.

She lashed out at the intruders with her dark energies and screamed, forcing the men to drop their weapons to shield their ears from the deafening cry. Strangely, to the sisters' ears as they hid in the closet, the sound was almost like a lullaby. The Morrigain turned to her son and pulled the silver cuff that she always wore from her ear. She placed it in his hand, ignoring his determined frown and the shake of his head.

"Do as yer told, Morgan Dagda. You and yer sister are my legacy. Go. Hide. Protect her and her sisters. Go…"

If there were to be more words to be said, they were lost in a loud pop of gunfire that followed. Blood sprung from the beautiful, terrible faerie's throat and splashed across the floor and over Morgan's face like a dark baptism. He caught her crumbling form and cried out her faerie name over and over again as though it might bring her back from the death she'd been sent to.

Morgan studied the recovering soldiers and the other bodies on the floor, then turned and locked eyes with Sango. There was no fear in his gaze, only a shimmer of guilt and deep sorrow. She released a staggered breath through barely parted lips and saw his rage building. His already dark eyes bled black entirely until there was no white visible. For the briefest moment, Sango felt a flash of hope that her family's deaths would be met with the vengeance of a god. And then his gaze fell to the ear cuff in his palm and he slipped it on before crashing through the nearby dining room window in search of freedom. Behind him he left the carnage and four sisters who were helpless against the mercy of the men in black.

-Three months later-

Sango woke up with a gasp**,** barely managing to tear herself from the nightmare. It was always the same one really**,** the one where her family died and Morgan abandoned them. She forced herself to breathe low so she did not wake her sisters who slept in the nearby bunks.

They'd been placed together in the foster home after enduring hours of government interrogation. The officials didn't believe that they knew nothing of their parents' activities. It was the truth though. They didn't know that their parents had been trying to fight the government's stranglehold of laws and procedures that damned anyone with even a sixteenth of faerie or youkai blood coursing through them. They didn't know, but Sango and Chora and Kagome had had their suspicions. Suspicions, but never any real knowledge, and that was what the officers found so hard to believe.

During the day and a half that followed the attack, the government had taken them into custody, separated them, frightened them into submission, denied them food, water, bathroom breaks and sleep, all in an attempt to break them. And they had broken, all of them, in one way or another. They told the men what they wanted to hear, what they'd known or didn't know, every suspicion or inkling. They were only girls after all, children really, being tortured like spies or terrorists.

Though the torture hadn't been prolonged, its effects were lasting. Rin still would not speak. At night she slept curled against one of her three sisters, slipping into their bed well after 'lights out'. None of the other fifteen girls sharing the room ever told. They too knew the kind of terrors that came in the dead of night. Sango thanked the goddess that Rin had decided to sleep in Kagome's bunk that night as she slipped out from beneath her covers to tip-toe to the restroom.

In the faint glow emanating from the nightlight plugged into the wall, she turned on the faucet and sipped enough water to remove the foul taste that'd settled on her tongue before spitting it into the basin. She glanced up at her face in the mirror and noticed how hollow her features appeared. The strain of re-living her memories from that night was beginning to show. She couldn't tell her sisters what she'd seen through the crack in the door. She couldn't break Kagome's heart by telling her how Morgan had simply run, abandoning them, even if their Auntie Morrigain had ordered him to.

Sango smoothed her hair back off her face and braided it before slipping back into the hall. She heard the sound of muted laughter drawing close and quietly slipped into the girl's dorm before she was spotted**.** She recognized the voices and the all too familiar sound of their approach. They belonged to the son and the nephew of the foster facility's owner. The owner was a nice enough man, strict yet kind, but when it came to his son and nephew the man was blind.

They were cruel boys who took great pleasure in tormenting those smaller than them, younger than them**,** or weaker in any way. The co-ed group home was terrorized by them. The older boys living in the foster home often stepped in to protect the other children, so for the most part the two left the kids to their own devices. In any case, they had their lives outside the group-home to keep them entertained. It was only during weekends or vacations from school when they became bored that the rest had anything to worry about.

Robbie, the son of the owner, stopped a few feet away from the girl's dorm chuckled deeply. He was nearly seventeen and while handsome and intelligent, he had a habit of looking down on anyone who didn't meet his strict standards.

"So what do you think, Harry? Think we can pull this off and not get caught?"

"Even if they said anything, your Dad wouldn't believe them." Harry's tenor voice replied. At seventeen as well, he was also very handsome, but there was something oily and snake**-**like about his energies that set everyone on edge.

"And, really, who'd believe them?" He scoffed. "They're both daughters of traitors and terrorists and one's a hanyou, for God's sake. Not to mention both of them are pagan or some shit."

Sango's eyes widened slightly and she fought to control her breathing.

"What about the older one and that kid?" Robbie asked with a faint growl in his voice. "I've seen that San girl sparring with some of the boys for kicks. She's pretty good."

"So we catch them when she's busy."

"Yeah, but the kid. She's silent."

"Better for us, Robbie. She's terrorized and has been mute since she got here. Even if she were with them when we did this, she wouldn't be able to say anything. She'd probably go fetal position or rock back and forth like the retard she is." There was a certain cruelty behind Harry's words that left Sango feeling sick.

"We can pull this off. Then those pretty little prudes can fall in line with all the others here."

"God, I hate hearing them talking about that… Morgan guy, right? That's his name? Fucking worshiping the ground he walks on. He's a terrorist too! They're probably all terrorists. People would thank us for putting them in their place even if someone did believe them," Robbie replied with venom.

"Leave them alone."

Two sets of eyes were on her in an instant. She trembled faintly as she closed the door behind her with a soft click. She didn't look up and didn't cry out when they pushed her roughly against the opposite wall.

"Leave my sisters alone," Sango repeated with determination. "I don't care what happens to me, just leave them alone."

She could feel them staring at her. Their grips tightened on her arms hard enough to leave bruises.

"You've got some nerve," Robbie began.

"Morgan's still out there. Chora's his sister and he's in love with Kagome. He's never said as much, but I know he's just waiting for her to turn eighteen to claim her. If you hurt them, it won't matter if anyone else believes them. He will**,** and he'll kill you both for it; slowly and painfully."

"Little cunt**,**" Harry spat**,** "You're lying."

She looked up and bravely met his dark gaze with her own. "He's full blooded faerie," she whispered darkly. "Can you afford to take the chance that I'm lying? Leave my sisters alone and take me as a consolation. I won't fight you. I won't tell. Not even them."

Robbie smiled a sickeningly dark smile. He leaned to sniff her hair and she fought the shiver that was building through her. "What if we don't like to share?"

"Learn," she growled, but did not pull away. She knew she was sealing her fate, but she was strong. She could survive anything. "This is the deal. Take it or die for your stupidity."

Harry grinned and reached down, grabbing her roughly between her legs. She fought the whimper building in her and was rewarded with the taste of more bile rising up into her mouth.

"It's a deal, San," Harry leered. "You belong to us. Whenever, where ever we want. You can't ever say no or else they're ours. Understand?"

Sango bit her lower lip and nodded as tears slipped down her cheeks. "Understood."

Harry chuckled and Robbie licked her neck suggestively. "Be downstairs and out back in twenty minutes. And be ready."

With that they released her and walked back the way they'd come. Sango hugged her body tightly and allowed herself a quiet whimper and a sob before returning to the bathroom to wash her mouth and face. She stared at her shadowed expression in the mirror once more and made a silent promise. They'd never see her tears again.

--Two months later--

Kaede's home was warm and beautiful. It wasn't their family's home, but it was definitely a home. A sanctuary. The structure was a cross between an English cottage and a Japanese farmhouse. The garden was just as much a fusion, echoing the eastern gardens with high spaces where delicate trees and shrubs grew in artful forms alongside wild red roses that climbed along side English ivy to the roof. It reminded her of their fairy books that their mother had read to them.

She'd protected her sisters. She'd shielded them from Robbie and Harry at the loss of her own innocence. She'd given up herself so many times in the short span of two months that she realized she had no part of her left to surrender when and if she ever did fall in love. They'd been cruel and they hadn't been careful. There were days when she had barely been able to walk or sit for very long and now… Now there was another problem. She didn't know what to do. Her sisters didn't know. No one knew. Only she knew and she wasn't even certain. Somehow she needed to get to a doctor.

They'd only been in Kaede's home two days when the elderly woman came to sit beside her in the back garden. They stared at the bamboo fountain wordlessly for many moments. A gnarled hand enclosed over her smooth, young one before the woman spoke to her.

"I was visited by Morgan a week ago. He asked me, as a favor, to take you four girls into my home. He said that he'd discovered that you were in danger and that if you fell, no one would be left to shield your sisters. I do not know what kind of danger he spoke of but I hope that in time you will tell me what it is and how you have come into it. Until then, should you need anything I will oblige without question."

Sango trembled and felt a tear slip down her cheek. "I need to go to a doctor. I need to go soon." Her voice broke and she began to sob.

Kaede wrapped her arms around the poor broken child beside her and rocked her gently. "I would be a fool to tell you it will be alright. Even I, old as I am, know how foolish that would be. But you are not alone, Sango. And one day, I promise, you will be able to see the light again."

"How can you know that?" She whimpered and looked up to meet the woman's gaze. "How can you promise that?"

"Simply, my sweet girl. There has never been a storm that does not end. There are always breaks in the clouds. You only need to endure long enough until the sun can warm your face again."

--

His eyes focused on the dark**-**haired girl as she was ushered into the elderly woman's car. He'd known Kaede for a very long while. He'd known her since she was young, beautiful and pure. At one time he'd thought he could have made his life with her and then… As much as he had loved her, he couldn't help his nature. She'd never stopped loving him, but she couldn't ever trust him again. She'd seen his true self. She knew the self he kept hidden from even his family and yet, she had still loved him.

Their friendship had survived decades and countless lovers on his part. None of them had compared to Kaede's purity and warmth… Until Kagome. He'd told her about his feelings for the young girl, soon to be woman, and Kaede had agreed to protect her. She had not agreed, much to his dismay, to keep the truth from her and her sisters if they asked about his past.

As she drove away in the direction of town, his eyes fell on the youngest sister, Rin, as she walked in the garden. He crept up and hid behind the shelter of a few large trees, concern crossing his features. She was so silent. He was sorry for the child's pain. Sorry he couldn't protect them better than he had. Most of all, he was sorry for the sacrifice Sango had made and the outcome of her current condition.

He'd sworn to protect them all and he'd failed, but at least the boys responsible for Sango's pain had known retribution for their acts. He smiled darkly at the thought of their shredded, used bodies, weighted down in the lake near their father's group home, being picked clean by fish and water snakes.

The girls could never, would never, know what he'd done. It wasn't as if they had been the first wastes of space he'd dispatched to hell or heaven or whatever waited beyond where his mother was. He hadn't inherited his mother's gift of song. He could not see the gateway she had lulled souls beyond with her songs. He only possessed her war form and her grace. His true power came from his father, Dagda, who could seduce any being, male or female, and draw them into their lusts whether for carnality, power or cruelty. Passion was his and his father's weapon, just as his mother's had been her voice. No doubt Chora would inherit the death song of the Morrigain. His dark smile only deepened.

"Morgan." He looked up suddenly and met the soft gaze of the child, Rin.

"Yes, Rinny, I'm here."

She rushed forward through the brush, ignoring the branches that lashed at her legs, and jumped into his waiting arms. He embraced her and let her cry against his chest for a long while before he drew back and met her watery brown eyes.

"You left… Mommy and Daddy died… Everyone died and you left us… Why did you leave us?"

"Oh, Rin." He breathed and brushed her dark hair from her face. "I had to run or they would have killed me, Mei Mei. Then I never would have been able to come back."

"They hurt Jei Jei."

His blood froze as he looked down on the innocent girl he held so close. "Who hurt your Jei Jei? Which Jei Jei?"

"San," she breathed and he let some of the tension fade from his face. "The boys hurt her. She thinks I don't know, but I saw… I saw what they were doing."

"They won't hurt her again."

"They will, though," she murmured in a lost voice, "They always do."

"Have you told Chora or Kagome?"

"No," she whispered sharply and looked at her hands in shame. "San doesn't even know that I saw… I can't… I can't talk to them yet. Every time I try, I start to cry and they… They wouldn't be able to watch that."

"And you think I can?"

"You're a boy," she replied simply and met his gaze again. "You're stronger that way."

"You know, the only reason boys seem to be stronger is because they're told that they are supposed to be when they are very young." Her eyes widened slightly and he thought he saw shame flash through them.

"Don't worry, Rinny**.** I can be strong against your tears, but I don't know if Chora and Kagome can be strong knowing what Sango did. And Sango too, if she knew you saw."

"So it's a secret**?**"

"Yes. A forever secret, Rinny."

She nodded and held onto him tightly, not willing to let go of him just yet. To her relief, he didn't seem ready to let go yet either.

--

She wanted to kill him. She wanted to scratch his face off with her talons over and over again. And she would have, had she possessed the power to summon them. Her eyes flashed from lavender to black once and she seethed with angry pride as he took a step back from her.

"How dare you ask me to lie to my sister? How dare you, Morgan Dagda!"

He struggled with his fly, backing into the corner as true fear raced through his veins. His sister had almost overridden the control anklet in front of him. He wasn't certain if it was because of her own latent power, her proximity to the ear cuff he wore, her rage**,** or some combination of the three, but it had him terrified of what she might do if she gained full access to her well of unknown power.

"I love Kagome, Chora! I have always loved her!"

"Is that why you've been fucking this whore behind my sister's back the whole of your mated time and before? Because you love her?" Her eyes flashed again and she clawed half formed talons across his face, leaving angry gashes. "How… sweet," she finished with a scowl.

"I can't help it! I don't love _her_!"

He pointed to the cowering blonde who was attempting to cover herself with the sheets on the hotel room bed. She gaped at him in disbelief before he returned his attention to his sister.

"Chora… You are the Morrigain's daughter. You inherited her devotion and strength, but I am her and Dagda's son. I can't… I _can't_ stop. What I _can_ do is ensure my mate never finds out. I don't want to hurt her. We both know this would kill Kagome."

"She's pregnant, Morgan. That woman you've been bedding is pregnant with your child." Her voice faded to a soft yet fierce whisper as she continued to chide him. She smirked as he winced. "How do you intend on hiding that from Kagome forever, Morgan?"

"I don't," he replied harshly. With a brief touch of his finger to the cuff on his ear, the gashes on his face slowly healed. "Once we're in Japan and I've wed her and given her a child of our own, I will tell her. I'll tell her everything, but I can't now. There's too much at stake**!**"

"You mean our citizenship, or your citizenship in Japan? Because mine is already assured once the contract goes through with the Taishos. Yours depends entirely on Kagome."

She winced at his angry look and took a step away from him. His voice darkened with his aura and he advanced upon her, his jeans barely holding at his hips. He snarled his rage and reached out with both hands to pin her suddenly and roughly against the wall.

"You said yourself, this would kill Kagome. Being forced to stay trapped here would kill me. You'd lose us both, Chora. You'd kill us both. Your brother and your sister."

"You're mad! I can't keep this from her!"

"Do you love me?"

"What?"

"Do you love me, Chora?" His eyes lightened and became almost pleading.

Her voice broke. "I have and always will love you."

He loosened his grip and leaned in to kiss her cheek tenderly. "I'm all the family you have. Me**,** and that baby Brigid is carrying**,** we're your blood and blood comes before anything else."

"This isn't fair…"

"Life isn't fair, baby sister," he replied darkly with his lips against her ear. He smiled knowingly at her as he pulled away. When he spoke again there was a new confidence behind his words. "You'll keep my secret. You'll keep it until I release you from keeping it. You'll do it because I'm all you have left in this world. Our mother died to keep us alive. You owe her and you owe me for all I've done for you and your 'sisters' these many years."

Chora trembled as the tears fell down her cheeks. Helpless to do anything more, she nodded once and headed for the door. She paused at the threshold, with her hand gripping the door handle, and cast a contemplative look over her shoulder at her brother.

"I'll keep your secret Morgan, but not because of our shared blood."

He frowned and watched her carefully. "Then for what reason?"

"You're her whole world, Morgan. You're everything to her. She doesn't know who she is or what she should do unless you are there telling her. I love her too much to let you destroy her world."

"And you don't love me enough to protect me?"

She turned fully and aimed a wicked smile at her brother, the kind that would make a man's blood run cold. "We are heirs to the Morrigain, my brother. The blood of the first trickster races through our veins. We are the children of a Goddess and you**,** the son of a God. If you cannot protect yourself, you are not worthy of your life."

With that, she opened the door and left him to his mistress without a glance backward.

For Morgan Dagda, it was the first time in his long life that he'd ever felt so horribly alone.

--

He could feel himself aging slowly. He could feel the cells inside of him dying off, one by one. With every microsecond that passed, another part of him faded. He smiled and leaned back in his car. On the seat next to him was all the paperwork. Brigid, the blazen hussy, had done her part and signed the documents. She, of course, knew what her role would be if all did not go as he planned. Everything was set. He only hoped that somehow, someday, Chora and Kagome would be able to forgive him.

His son was growing fast. Soon his powers would blossom**,** and without the inhibitor ear cuff his mother had handed down to him his hanyou status would be revealed. He'd be crippled by his heritage, as so many of his kind had been over the years. Imprisoned. Trapped. Lost. Such a fate would not be bestowed upon another of his blood. Not like his sister… His beautiful sister.

His five-year-old son looked so much like him it was eerie. Somehow the boy had inherited his grandmother and aunt's lavender eyes, something he'd come to think of as a rather fitting twist of fate. On the boy's slightly pointed ear, he'd carefully placed the cuff given to his mother by the first leader of the rebellion, a man he'd only known as Raven.

He'd only met the man once before he'd been killed. Raven and his mother had become fast friends and, for a short time, lovers as well. This was before the trickster God of the Native Americans was sent to the other side when he'd refused to be collared.

There was so little time left.

Chora's concert was scheduled for that night and with it, the rebellion. Either they succeeded and the laws were revisited and repealed**,** or they failed and tried again and again until there wasn't a single one of them left to carry on the fight. Either way, he knew his son would be safe. His sister would be safe. Kagome would be safe. No matter what happened in the coming hours, he would be at peace knowing that those he loved with his true heart would be safe and would take care of each other.

--

Bright lavender eyes focused on the large plane that was making ready to take off. The airport was buzzing with people, their joys, fears and passions swimming in his distracted mind. Had he not been so good at focusing on one thing, he might have been quite insane before his fifth birthday. He reached up and touched the cuff on his ear, closed his eyes and completely silenced the world from his ears by constructing a mental barrier around his thoughts. Once the din was silenced, he let his raven hair fall back over his ear to hide the silver adornment he'd worn since a time before he could remember.

He'd seen his father for the last time a little over a year before, shortly before he'd been killed. Morgan had asked his mother to sign several documents. She hadn't even asked what they were. Then Morgan had taken him outside and had shown him a picture of a beautiful raven haired woman with blue eyes hugging the woman he knew to be his aunt, Chora.

"Who's she?"

"Her name is Kagome. She is beautiful and loving and good. She is my mate…"

"Momma says your mate is ugly and mean and hates me."

His father had frowned deeply and taken him by his chin so that he could not look away. "Your mother is a liar."

"I know. I can feel her lies."

He nodded, seemingly pleased with his son's observation. The boy was uncommonly astute and intelligent for his age, even considering his heritage. "Kagome should have been the woman that carried and birthed you, my son. She is my true mate and I love her beyond words."

"I know."

"One day I want you to call her your true mother. I want her to help me raise you, but if that cannot happen and something takes me away from you and her, you must promise to love her and help her know I always loved her and only her."

"I promise, Da," he'd whispered and hugged his father, noticing the look of worry in the dark eyes he loved so deeply. His father had sighed deeply and wrapped his arms around him tighter. He could sense the truth behind his words when he said,

"I am proud of you."

No matter what questions burned in his mind, he would never question his father's pride and love for him. He would never question his father's true devotion because in that moment his heart had not wavered, even though his passions and lusts were prone to wandering.

"Daeg."

He looked up to his mother and stood, taking her hand. "The plane's ready?"

She nodded. "They're loading up now."

He walked beside the tall, blond woman who had carried and birthed him, but his mind was already across the ocean. In a matter of hours he would be in the arms of a raven haired woman with eyes like diamonds that shone with the color of the sky. Kagome - his true mother.


	11. Chapter 11

11-

(This chapter is dedicated to those who still read my work even during my long absences.)

He woke slowly to the sound of his brother's voice gently coaxing Chora from the limo. The vehicle had stopped at some point. Aside from himself, Kagome, his brother and Chora, all the others had managed to exit without him being aware of their arrival or exodus. It was slightly disconcerting.

He grasped the hands that still held his so tightly and felt the warm head that'd been leaning against his shoulder rise as his eyes began to crack open.

"Good morning, Sunshine," she murmured into his ear before kissing his cheek.

He turned his head and smiled crookedly at her, then reached out his hand and ran it through the tangles that'd formed in her hair during their nap. He'd never slept so well, not even in his sealed, soundproof room with his face buried into a source of her scent.

"I am not accustomed to sleeping so soundly," he confessed.

Her smile deepened. She inclined her head and leaned into his hand where it was buried into her dark hair before she looked to where Inuyasha and Chora were still inching from the limo. They were so focused on each other, so completely fused in their actions that they'd managed to miss the tender scene between their siblings entirely.

"We should get out of their way."

He nodded and began to release her hands, but found himself delighted when she continued to hold on as they stood and slipped out he door of the limo. He could hear the squeals of the other sisters already inside the kitchen and the hearty laughter of Miroku. He paused a moment under the overhang between the car and the kitchen door and looked out over his familial land. They were certainly beautiful and breathtaking, but the woman he settled his eyes on left him equally in awe. Her eyes were scanning over the green hills and clear blue sky with a faint smile kissing her lips.

He didn't stop to think before he began jogging toward the tree line, pulling her along with him. He didn't release her hand as they raced over the gravel path toward the field of tall green grass and wild flowers. Her laughter was like the sound of delicate crystal wind chimes ringing in his ears and, for the first time in a long while, he laughed low and heartily. Once they'd reached the trees, he slowed to a stop and turned to her with a look of utter delight.

She glowed at him and took a silent moment to absorb the beauty of his smile, grace and warmth. He seemed so young, so innocent for the moment. All she wanted to do was bask in his presence. She moved close and slipped into his arms, feeling blessed that he embraced her in turn and held her close to him, burying his nose in her hair.

"Any reason we've run away? I thought you boys were going to show us to our rooms."

He chuckled. "Perhaps this is where I will keep you…"

She pulled back and noticed the mischief in his gaze. "You'd like me to sleep in the dirt?"

His gaze deepened and she felt dizzy a moment. He leaned and kissed her brow reverently.

"I know everything of the estate manor, but all I know of the estate grounds, aside from sheltered visits with my brother and parents, is what I saw from the windows."

Kagome trembled at the implication of his words.

"Then we should try to come outside as much as we can. We can have adventures here."

"Do you promise?"

She laughed and hugged him tightly, delighted by the innocence of his question.

"I promise."

------

He felt a swell of pride as he guided his mate into the kitchen on her own two feet. Granted, they'd been in the shelter of the overhang and it had taken a solid fifteen minutes to guide her out of the limo at all, but it was progress as far as he was concerned.

He smirked at Sango and Rin who were busy putting away the food they hadn't eaten on the ride over in the refrigerator. The look of amusement written on Miroku and Shippo's faces as they watched was priceless. Ayame was sitting at the breakfast nook at the far end of the very large kitchen, sipping a cup of iced tea, while her mate spoke harsh words in his softest, most severe and frightening tone into his cell phone.

Inuyasha met Kouga's gaze and lifted an eyebrow curiously. Kouga raised a hand in dismissal, signaling that who ever he was talking to, it wasn't a serious matter. Unfortunately for the individual on the other end of the line, the ookami had decided that he needed to be set straight and had taken to using his more 'diplomatic' tone for the occasion.

It took him a moment to realize there were two people from their group were missing.

"Where are my brother and Kagome?"

Kouga closed his phone and looked around as his frown began to fade.

"When we got out of the car, they were curled up together sleeping."

"They got out before we got out," Chora said softly, her eyes shimmering with mischief as well as unshed tears. She was proud of herself and even more proud of her sister.

"Shit… That idiot."

Inuyasha turned to the door but was stopped short by the iron grip of Chora. He looked to her and met her eyes just in time to see the tears trail down her cheeks.

"What is it, Baby?"

"They're together, Yash. Where ever Sesshomaru and she went, they're together and I doubt any of us would want to interrupt them."

She reached up and brushed away her tears with her free hand and gave him a brilliant smile.

"He'll be fine, you'll see. There's nothing to worry about when they're together."

--------------

They had taken another entrance to avoid the looks they knew would come, even if they had evolved from the love of family. Sesshomaru had clasped her hands and run with her through the brush and trees to a parlor door and then up a small spiral staircase to a large wooden door carved with a family seal. She looked at it intently and raised a brow.

"This isn't your family seal. Morgan said it was the same symbol you use for your company icon."

Sesshomaru smiled and caressed the door gently before taking the handle and opening it to a small library with a baby grand piano near the far wall. She entered and turned as he closed the door behind him.

"It was the family seal of my mother. This was her library."

Kagome smiled and walked quietly around the room. Once she reached the piano, she lovingly caressed the inward curve and looked to Sesshomaru who was watching her intently.

"Do you play?"

He smiled crookedly and nodded. "Very well, actually. Would you like to hear something?"

"Please."

He walked to the bench and sat, opening the cover. He closed his eyes a moment and then began to play. The notes came as easily as if he had released a breath, low and sensually deep from his left hand, then rolling and dancing from his right. His eyes closed halfway as he slipped into the fierce and gentle notes of Chopin's "Fantasie Impromptu."

She smiled and watched him play, then lay herself gently against the curve of the instrument to feel the notes as well as hear them. Her eyes focused on his face as he played, admiring the way he appeared so relaxed and happy. He looked like he had everything he could ever want in the world, and that amounted to her and the music. Something inside her quaked at the thought.

The music, though encompassing less than the span of five minutes, seemed to last much longer. There was something about how the notes moved and danced that was both joyous and sorrowful. It was the kind of bittersweet song one could live within, where both the good and the bad could be appreciated fully.

When he finished, he opened his eyes and found her moving from her resting place against the piano's curve. Their eyes met and she smiled, though her gaze was shimmering.

"You know, he only lived to be thirty-nine? Somehow he wrote these divine, magical pieces and he didn't even reach forty."

"Some people have older souls than others, Kagome."

She laughed and moved to sit beside him on the bench. "Do you really believe that we can touch that kind of majesty in such a short time?"

He reached out and gently took her hand. She rested her head on his shoulder and sighed. "I believe that anything is possible."

"Yes." She smiled and squeezed his hand. "I think so too."

He took a moment to enjoy the intimacy of the room and their closeness before he let out a soft breath he hadn't realized he'd been holding.

"We should find our families, Kagome. As much as I would love to hide in here forever…"

"I know," she murmured, lifting her head slowly from its resting place. "They'll be worried soon and come looking."

For an instant, he ached to ask the question which had welled up in him since the night they'd eaten dinner together in her bedroom. That was the night they'd made their peace, and the first night he had ever felt the painful, wonderful pangs of hope. He hadn't asked it then because it was too soon for an answer. It was still too soon and he wasn't certain he wanted to know…

The answer she would give was complete truth and he knew that if the truth were anything but yes, the fragile hope in his heart would shatter away forever. Instead of asking, he leaned in and kissed her cheek tenderly. When he drew back, she rested her hand on her cheek and blushed deeply. He stood and took her hand, drawing her with him from the piano to the door.

"Sesshomaru?"

He stopped and looked down at her. Her hand was still resting on her cheek and her grip in his hand tightened. She reached up from her cheek to his, caressing it gently before drawing him down to her. Their lips met, first chastely and then with the soft fire that was being kindled between them. He wrapped his arm around her waist and held her close a moment longer before they broke away and simply stared at each other.

"Kagome…"

"Don't ask me yet," she breathed in response as if she'd heard his heart's question.

She smiled at the sadness that began to fill his countenance and hurried to kiss his lips tenderly again, tracing her fingers along his markings before pulling away.

"Don't be afraid, Maru. I'm just not ready to answer you yet. He's still with me. Morgan is still with me. You deserve all of me and I can't let him go all of the way yet."

"When?" He asked in a soft whisper. It was hard to fight back the jealousy he was feeling. He was jealous of a dead man. He knew how ridiculous it sounded. He had her in his arms and she wasn't saying no. She was asking for his patience so she could give him her whole heart. But there was a part of him that wondered if she ever could when she'd placed Morgan so deeply inside herself.

She sighed and embraced him, only smiling when he held her tightly to his chest.

"I don't know yet. But when I know, you'll know. I promise."

------

Brigid pressed the bell for the fifth time and, again, knocked hard against the carved door. Daeg sighed and lay back onto the lush grass of the lawn. He knew they weren't there. He could feel that they weren't there, but his mother just wouldn't stop. She cursed and he fought a smile.

"She's a fucking invalid! Where would she have gone?"

Brigid stomped down the stairs and across the lawn to where he was laying. "Get up. We're going to their boss and seeing if he can help us."

"Mother, they probably all took a vacation…"

"Your stupid, retarded aunt can't even look out a window, Daeg, let alone leave the house without serious sedation. They wouldn't just leave! And their car is still parked in the driveway!"

"Maybe they made some friends."

"Friends?" She laughed and shook her head with a rueful look meant for the girls.

"They're their own best friends. They're so caught up with each other; they'd never let anyone get close to them. And that Kagome chick… Goddamn cunt probably still cries her eyes out every night over your father like the weak little thing she is. I don't know what he ever saw in her."

Brigid turned heel and stomped to their rental car. He stood and murmured "Something that wasn't ever in you," once she was out of earshot.

The drive across town took forever.

He could say many cruel things about Brigid, but she was definitely a thorough woman. She'd left nothing to chance and had researched everything she could find about his aunt, Kagome and their two sisters. She had a book she carried with her that was pasted full of articles she'd found and had translated from Japan. It'd taken her a while, but she'd eventually found their address and then began to research Naraku Onigumo, along with his company and associates.

From the information she'd gathered, Daeg was convinced he was the last person in the world Morgan would have wanted his aunt and Kagome to have dealings with, but his father was dead and his mother seemed enthralled with the man. But then, what had he expected from her?

Once parked in an underground lot, Brigid took him by the wrist and dragged him to an elevator and through the busy down town streets to the large glass doors of their destination. The foyer was a strange dichotomy of rough concrete walls, framed with fine honed wooden beams, and a floor made of stately black granite. He paused and pulled back only to have his wrist gripped and yanked painfully forward.

"I don't have time for your games, Daeg. Come on," she barked at him.

He followed her wearily to the brushed steel reception desk where a beautiful young woman with bleached blonde hair sat tapping her jet-black nails silently against the porcelain skin of her cheek. Her eyes diverted from the corner she had been staring at and fell onto Brigid and Daeg.

"May I help you?" She asked in a soft but chilly tone.

Her English was good with most of her accent smoothed away by practice. Daeg's eyes fell on her nails and noticed their density and the meticulous care the woman took filing them down. Her eyes fell away from Brigid to the little boy beside her.

"Haven't you ever seen claws, boy?"

He shook his head quickly. "Not in the open."

She raised a brow and looked him over from head to toe. Her lips upturned slightly and some of the chill in her aura faded away.

"Ah, an American hanyou. Of course you would not have." Her eyes fell back onto Brigid.

"You're his mother, then? He doesn't have a restraining anklet. Either you are incredibly stupid or… No, you have to be stupid. Our kind can smell each other out. You're lucky you weren't deported at customs."

Brigid huffed and turned up her nose. Daeg let out a soft groan at his mother's conceit. She'd researched everything except how to keep him safe.

"I've come to speak with Naraku Onigumo about employees of his. It's of great importance."

"Do you have an appointment?" The chill had returned to her voice, though her gaze had returned to Daeg's with sympathy and care.

"I don't need one. I need to make contact with Kagome Higurashi and Chora Dane immediately. This is Chora Dane's nephew…"

"Dane… Pale Morrigain's nephew?" The girl's brow raised and her full attention fell on Daeg once more.

"So you're the Morrigain's grandson…"

"May we _Please_ see Naraku Onigumo about this? It is important." The annoyance in his mother's tone was thick and nearly made him gag.

The woman looked up sharply and sneered. "Elevator one. Press the top button. I will let him know you're on your way up."

Brigid nodded curtly and began to drag him away. Daeg turned back and mouthed 'thank you' to the woman who smiled a strange smile and nodded to him before the doors of elevator one closed between them.

She picked up the receiver and dialed in a number.

"Naraku-sama, the nephew of Chora Dane and his mother have come to see you for something… Something interesting… He doesn't have an inhibitor… She wouldn't tell me… Yes, sir."

She sighed and hung up the phone, then looked to her cell phone. She picked it up and flicked it open, then hit a number on speed dial.

"Meg?"

"I know I said I'd never call you again… That I hated you and wished you were dead, and I meant all of it, but I still owe your father a debt. There was a woman who just came here with a child… The nephew of Chora Dane."

There was a pause. "Morgan's son? But Kagome never…"

"Kagome isn't his mother. The woman he was with was his mother." She paused and heard the soft but labored breathing on the other end of the line. "You haven't been taking care of yourself."

"Tell me more about the woman."

She knew the tone of voice and decided not to press it any further. Let him find his own way to the grave.

"She's a Yank of Welsh origin if her scent means anything. Her blood speaks of the British Isles and perhaps a bit of Dutch descent. I didn't get her name, but the boy… Daeg… He was most definitely Morgan's son… The Morrigain's grandson."

"I wonder if they know?"

"If they don't, they will soon. She's gone to Naraku with the information and, from what I can tell, she wants to take Chora and her sisters for all she can. She doesn't care about Daeg. He's just a tool as far as she's concerned. You know Naraku, Jin… Between what he wants and what she wants, they'll drag everyone through the rocks before they let it go."

"Why do you suddenly care what happens to Maru?" The voice on the other end of the line was warm. Everything about him was warm and it made her ache to hear him again.

She had lost everything in the Power Wars, including her sisters. She'd never be whole again. She'd nearly gone mad and his father… In his last years his father had soothed her and saved her. When he'd died, Jinenji had taken up his place at her side for nearly three decades and then, because of her jealousy, her own nature, Megeara had pulled away.

"Maybe I care… What happens to the boy?" she replied and cursed herself for the emotion behind her words. "Dagada and the Morrigain were allies to my people once."

There was a long pause. "I'll see what I can do, Meg. I'll speak to Chora."

"Just do something, Jin. Please."

She closed the phone with a click and then frowned as the hair on the back of her neck rose. She turned and met dead eyes of the pale woman-child, Kanna.

"You heard?"

"Every word."

Megeara smiled and then shrugged. "I'll get my things."

"They will be sent to you once they have been searched."

She stood and tilted her head just slightly. "You know I can sense your true self, Kanna. You aren't as innocent as you try to pretend."

"You have five minutes to leave the premises."

"I only need five seconds," Megeara replied.

Calling up her energies, she teleported to her apartment several city blocks away. She looked through the window to the building she had just left and shook her head.

"Jin… May what is left of the gods watch over you and your pack. Naraku is out for blood."

------

He walked beneath the canopy of thick verdant shades, sunlight cascading down in curtains of gold and honey onto the fertile ground kissed with flowers of various shades. He was close, only a few hundred yards away.

It had been over a decade since he'd found his way to the spot and yet it felt like only a moment. The headstones were nestled under tall trees just on the hem of a small clearing. Once at a certain stone, Jinenji knelt and placed a single white lily on his father's grave before standing and releasing a deep sigh. His mind spun with the knowledge Megeara had given to him. Nothing could ever be simple.

"I need your advice, Father, and while I know you cannot respond and help me in my worries now, voicing them to you has always helped me. It is of your favorite patient… Sesshomaru."

He sat down on the grass and stared thoughtfully at his father's headstone.

"There are two things and, in truth, it's not only him that I worry for and need advice with. But I shall begin with him… With my dearest friend. He is dying, Father, and I cannot stop it. The progression has become sharp in the last year and I fear for him… More now than ever before and she, the other, is the reason.

"Her name is Kagome and I believe she is the cure for all his ailments. She stills his senses. She saves him from himself and fills the void in his existence, but there is more to it. He fills the void in her left by her last mate, a faerie who gave her his immortality."

He looked down at his huge, hulking hands and let out a hissing breath. "They recognize each other, Father. Given time they might even find love together…"

His eyes shifted to his father's headstone again and then to the ones for Kouga's father and, further down, Shippo's parents and the Taisho brother's mothers and father. It was a lonely cemetery, perhaps to be filled out soon with fresh ashes.

"But they do not have time, Father, and I don't know how to kindle love in hearts."

"You have lost your ability to remain distant from your patients." The hulking hanyou looked up to see the elderly kappa walk into view.

"Only Maru, Jaken, and you know why. There has never been professional distance with any of my pack members."

Jaken nodded and crinkled his beak in what the hanyou knew to be a smirk. "If the boy dies, let it be with hope."

"I don't follow you," Jinenji replied as he returned his gaze to the gravestones.

"Maru has always known he was going to die younger than he would had he been healthy. We have all been bracing for it so long, the prospect of him outliving us all is almost jarring to the senses. He believes there is a chance for life and happiness, Jinenji. If he is going to die, let death come while he still possesses some light in his life."

"And what of her?" Jinenji asked with a despondent gaze.

"Today I learned that Morgan betrayed her even after they were mated. I learned he had a son and, very soon, the mother of this child will use him to harm her. How is she ever to trust Maru after such a shock to her senses? She's already so fragile, Jaken-sama. I doubt anyone realizes how fragile either of them are."

Jaken's eyes settled on his old master's grave and when Jinenji's gaze fell, the old kappa sighed deeply.

"What is there to do when the question is so hard? Should the truth be known about Maru's condition, it would be desperation that pushed them together, and not love. Yet, if they never knew they might not come together in enough time, even if love grew between them. If they never knew, Kagome might not have the strength to overcome what rests in her past."

"Do you think recognition is enough to forge love between them?"

He turned his gaze to Jaken and noted the deep look of thought in his bulbous eyes.

The elder of the two paused as he considered his answer. He stood slowly and smiled before turning to walk back to the manor house.

"Let them hope, Jinenji. Life without hope is a windowless room where all the candles have gone out."


	12. Chapter 12

12-

_~My dearest Kagome,_

_I write this to you knowing that, if you are reading it, I am dead. If I am dead, you have come to know what a cad I am. You are in pain and it is all my fault. I have no right to ask you for forgiveness, my love, so I will not. All I ask of you is to love him.~_

The closet was dark and safe. Only the smallest sliver of light could be seen at the base of the door. It was just enough light for him to notice the silhouettes of the coats and office supplies that had been put there at some point. He pressed himself against the farthest corner and covered his ears with the heels of his palms and pretended he was home hiding in his own closet during the nights when Brigid had her parties. His ipod was in his mother's purse. Normally he would be listening to it on full blast. His aunt would sing him to sleep int he digital copies of her voice piped through his earbuds. He could only dream of what it would have been like actually falling asleep to her singing.

The door shook and rattled with the harsh thump of a body thrown against it, and then squeaked in rhythm as two moved together. He covered his mouth and swallowed a scream of surprise, then covered his ears and buried his face into his knees as he tried to shut out the sounds and the curses and vile things pouring fro his mother and the dark man's mouths. Tears began to wet his pants through his skin. This was not what Morgan had intended, but Morgan was dead. His father was dead.

Tears began to flow more freely and his mind's eye began painting the life that he might have had if his father had lived. He could see a house int he Japanese countryside where Kagome, his true mother, was sitting, swollen bellied in a chair. He could see Chora laughing from under a tree where she was sitting and playing her lap dulcimer. Both women watched him as he flew and played in the skies with his father, dancing int he air as two great black blots on the sun.

He sobbed silently into his knees as the vision began to fade and the world returned. The closet and the sounds and the smells began to invade again, but he clung to that moment of unreality. He clung and clawed and screamed with his heart to the two women who he knew should have always loved him. He screamed to his aunt and his mother, to Chora and Kagome.

The vision faded. His childhood shouldn't have been this way. He should never had seen or heard or experienced any of Brigid's world. When Morgan was alive, it had been different. But he couldn't make it all be undone. He couldn't bring his father back. He couldn't erase the years of torment... But he could hope. Somewhere on this tiny island lived the family he should always have had.

_~Forgive your sisters. I never understood how the four of you could keep secrets from each other. What misguided sense of loyalty or desire to protect keeps all of you so silent when it really matters that you speak? How is it that I know so many secrets none of you know I keep? Now all the secrets escape and you will need to let it go. You will need to be strong for them. Strong enough to be weak.~_

Far away, miles to the North, ethereal lavender eyes flashed open. She was in her mate's room, curled against his chest. THey had retired for a much needed nap and her rest had been pleasant. She'd felt so safe and at home in his arms that everything, all the pain and loss from her past, almost faded completely away. She'd dreamed of her brother. He looked so sad and lost, sitting on a hill far from her alone. She began to run to him, but he was fading away. Suddenly, she shifted from her human from and found herself graced with black wings. She took to the skies and flew to him just as he was almost gone. She caught one word from his lips before he disappeared.

And then, out of the gradually building darkness, she heard her name screamed from the sky. It was a child's voice calling out to her, calling out to Kagome. She sat up slowly as she woke fully and closed her eyes, trying to summon the word she had heard. Finally, it was there.

"Daeg."

"Huh?" Inuyasha sat up slowly with a faint frown. "What's the matter, Babe?"

"Daeg... I dreamed of Morgan and he was trying to tell me something and all I heard was the name Daeg," she ran her hands through her hair and leg out a soft sigh. "I just don't know what to do about it."

"The name means something to you?" He couldn't shake the feeling he wasn't going to like what the answer was.

"Yes, the name means a great deal to me. It meant a lot to Morgan, too, but I... Goddess, it's been so long. I've been holding this in so long, I don't even know how to say the words. I don't know how to tell the secret anymore."

Inuyasha raised a brow and ran a hand through her long golden hair. "Does it have to do with your brother and Kagome?"

She nods and bit her lip hard. "And no, it doesn't. But he wanted it to have to do with Kagome... He wanted Daeg to have to do with Kagome more than he could ever put into words."

The inuhanyou nodded and shook his head a bit. "Kagome's always talking about Morgan, even when she isn't saying anything at all. The only time you talk about him is when you're talking about your pain or Kagome's pain." He met Chora's startled eyes and smirked. "What did he do, Chora? Who is Daeg and why does that name hurt you so much?"

"Daeg is innocent, Yash. He's only a child."

"Morgan's son."

She nodded and let out a ragged sigh. "His son with some hussy who caught his eye one day. Morgan gave Kagome his immortality but he gave Brigid the only part of him that my sister ever wanted. I've always hated him a little bit for that."

"And for making you keep the secret?"

"No," she said quickly and smirked as a tear slipped down her face. "No, I kept that myself. He would have told her eventually. Morgan wanted Kagome to be Daeg's true mother, he just couldn't keep it in his paths long enough for Kagome to be ready to have kids. It was his curse, you see. Not the way that your brother or the rest of the broken generation was cursed, but Morgan was cursed with his fathers's gifts. Dagada was a famous womanizer, but that was because he could feel the desires of the people around him and he could control them. My mother told me that the only reason she was so devoted to him was because it was in her nature to be. Had he not caught her washing after a battle and taken advantage of her naked state, she'd have remained the maiden warrior and Morgan never would have been. Morgan was just like Dagada with the exception of his war form."

"That isn't an excuse in your mind, though."

She shook her head. "No, not in the slightest. It was only a reason. There was enough of the Morrigain in him to fight his urges, but he didn't. Perhaps he felt his end coming and knew he had to leave some part of himself in the world whether Kagome was ready or not."

"You've kept it to yourself since then to protect her."

"Yes. She'd lost enough, Yash. To lose him in that way too would have destroyed her. All she had were her memories of him and I couldn't ever bring myself to taint them. I thought Daeg would be safe, but I can feel it now. He's in some sort of danger and I can't hold this back any longer. After I dreamed of Morgan, I heard Daeg screaming for me. I only hope I can make up leaving him for so long." She trembled and Inuyasha pulled her tightly against his chest.

"She'll be ok, Chora. She's stronger than you're giving her credit for."

"And she has your brother," she said, looking up into his eyes with a faint smile. "Do you think she'll be able to forgive me for holding it back so long?"

"Not at first," he replied then smirked and kissed her tenderly. "She's your sister, Chora. She can't not love you. You'll just need to give her time."

_~There are days when I hate myself. Those are the days when I look into his eyes and see her gaze and not yours staring back at me. Those are the days when I think of losing you to another man because of my stupidity. Even now, knowing you must be reading this, I mourn for my memory losing its hold over you.~_

He held her sweaty form close to him where they rested on the couch in his office. Her pale skin was glistening and slick against his. He leaned and licked a serpentine tongue along her throat and jaw and she almost purred in pleasure. Her hand trailed downward from his chest, nearing his ready length. She was no Kanna. She was human. But she was an excellent fuck. He could see what enticed Morgan so many years before.

He flipped her onto her belly and pinned her to the leather arm, the couch giving as they joined. He grinned as she cried out. "Recite the plan, my pet," he breathed huskily into her ear.

She could barely breathe, let alone speak, but she already knew what he would do to her if she didn't follow his command. In her twisted brain, she wasn't certain if she wanted his punishment or praise more. They both were so appealing... "You will... Call them back from... The Taisho estate..."

"And..."

"And if they don't... Come back..."

"You will..."

"I will pay... Them a visit... Without Daeg..."

"And..."

"And the letter..."

"And..."

"And the c-contract... And make them... Come back..."

"Or..."

"Or... You take... Daeg... To the American Embassy..."

He raked his nails along her sides and back, reveling in her sharp little cries of pain-filled bliss. He would have what he desired. This beautiful whore was the perfect tool. She cared more for the money she promised than her own son's freedom and he would pay her happily even if all he was able to do was cut into the Taisho brothers by hurting the women they seemed to care so deeply for.

_~I never wanted to lose you. I never wanted to know a world where you were not in it. That was why I gave you my eternity. Some part of me, the part of me that is the Morrigain, has known for some time now that I will die and you will read this letter. Perhaps I have always known. Perhaps I knew that day when we first made love and I gave you my birthright. In my long life, giving you health, beauty and youth forever is the only thing I do not regret or wish I might change somehow. ~_

She unwrapped the silver box and sat on the balcony railing. The wind was high and, as the last vestiges of day faded over the distant hills, she felt as if she had been waiting for this moment to finally let go.

Sesshomaru had left her to ready for dinner and she had changed into a comfortable little black dress and purple sandals, her hair a mass of black, unruly curls. Had she been asked a week earlier if she was ready to let go, she would have felt a century wouldn't have been enough time to release her stranglehold on his memory. So what had changed?

Perhaps she had changed. She knew her heart hadn't healed from the trauma of losing Morgan. Perhaps it never would. She didn't really want it to. Some hurts shouldn't be forgotten. Some hearts shouldn't ever fade into the aether of memory. They should always hurt to recall. If they don't, did they ever really matter?

She'd never recover from losing Morgan. That she had accepted. No amount of mourning could dull her pain, but she knew without question that she would never forgive herself if... She smiled and caressed the box lid tenderly.

"I love you. This doesn't mean I don't love you... It just means... I'm not ready to die with you. I'll never be ready to die with you. Loving him someday doesn't betray the love we had and always will have. I need to believe that you would understand that. I need to believe you'd give your blessing. He's a good man, Morgan. He makes me smile... He stands up to me and won't take my crap," tears welled in her eyes and she opened the box. "And I'm terrified I'll lose him. After losing you... I know how precious someone can be."

The wind began to gather the ashes from within the box and drew them away and into the night. The sky carried what was left of her first love out into the beauty of the world, free.

_~There are some things I must believe. I must believe in gravity. My greatest fear is living in a world where the sky and earth are not pulled together- where updrafts only carry me higher and further away from everything I love. I must believe that death is like gravity. I must believe that, when I'm gone, it will mean, even if I fall, my memory will never leave your heart. To be within your heart, even hated, is the only heaven I wish for. ~ _

He put down his pen and read the words one last time in his mind. He stared at her name and then signed his own. He knew she would read it one day. He knew he'd never have the moment he needed to salvage their love. Maybe with his words he could make it right again. Perhaps he could free her heart from his.

Morgan stood from his desk and walked to the bed where she slept and watched her. Wild ebony waves pooled around her face and form. He wanted to see her eyes. He wanted to touch her. He wanted so much, but he knew he didn't deserve her any longer. He doubted he ever did.

"How far I fall, Father," he whispered into the night, his form a pale shade in the slanting moonlight. "Regret is a bitter drink... But here it is. I will never make her happy again. I hope whoever does is a far better man than me."


	13. Chapter 13

13-

Morning was still on the Taisho estate. The sun had barely risen half an hour before and bathed the comfortable home nestled far from the city in warm light. Rin slipped into the large room Shippo had shown her a few days before. There was a small stage, tall windows and a high ceiling. It had been built in the European style as a ballroom a century before and received very little use by anyone. They crystal chandeliers were covered in white sheets where they hung from the ceiling and any furniture was also bedecked like ghosts forgotten by the present generation.

She placed her ipod on the stage and plugged in the speakers. Before she had gone from their home in the city, she had downloaded several selections Kohaku and Souta had emailed to her as good "creative music." She scrolled to the playlist and pressed play. A strumming guitar emitted from the speakers and she smiled, finding her center and closing her eyes before she began to move to the strains of music.

What was it about music that stilled her soul so easily? Since their arrival, her mind had been drawn into the past more than once. She remembered the horrible day her family had been shattered, the evening she had seen Sango held down and raped by the boys in the group home, the day Morgan had returned and made her promise never to reveal what she knew to her sisters, the day she'd cut her hand and what had really led up to it. She remembered the pain and how, for a moment, it had made everything bearable. But she had frightened herself and she'd never allowed herself to go back to that place again where memory had overtaken her and sorrow nearly killed her.

The only difference between now and then was she wasn't alone. No matter how many memories came to her, she wasn't alone. Her sisters were with her... Shippo was with her and she was safe. It was only in the mornings when she woke from her dreams before the rest of the house that she found she could not bear it. Then she had her music and her dancing to chase away her fears and pain.

It was when she came to the third song that she heard a car pulling up the gravel drive. She stopped and frowned deeply, knowing that someone would be up to answer it, but she had always been a curious creature. Whoever was coming wasn't expected. She turned off her music and walked to the front door to find a servant greeting an American woman, maybe a little older than Sango, dressed in a business suit, her hair piled on her head. With her was that Tsubaki woman Rin remembered from Naraku's offices.

A day or two before, Naraku had made a point to call Sango about returning to the city for their work. He was afraid the game would be stollen by the Taishos and he couldn't have that. Sango had assured him that everything was password protected and that he hadn't anything to worry about. They would return when the month was up and no sooner. The sisters had thought that would be the end of it. Ayame and Kouga had disagreed. Apparently, the slimy Naraku had boundary issues.

"We would like to speak with Kagome Higurashi," Rin noticed the distasteful tone in the woman's voice and the contempt in Tsubaki's as she translated.

Rin stepped from the doorway into the view of the women. "What is your business with us while we're on our vacation?"

The woman looked up and sneered. She was holding a briefcase and Rin noticed her grip tightened until her knuckles were white around the handle. Tsubaki spoke. "Just because you're on vacation doesn't mean you aren't still on contract. Go and fetch your sister, little girl, so we can talk business."

Rin scowled. She hadn't ever been very good at being told what to do. Whether it was the Bohemian artist mentality or the little sister complex, she had always found a certain delight in being entirely contrary when she was told she had to do something. "Does this business have to do with contractual obligations?"

"That doesn't concern you."

Rin's eyes lit up in triumph. "If it doesn't have to do with me, it doesn't have to do with contractual obligations which means you aren't here about anything that really matters. As far as the Taisho family is concerned, you're trespassing." Rin's triumphant smile faded into a wickedly sardonic grin. "Oh, and I am not a little girl you get to boss around."

"You will go and get Kagome Higurarshi. Now." The American said through gritted teeth. "I am tired or waiting."

Rin's brow raised. She felt someone watching her from the stairs but did not look back to see who it was. She watched as the American's eyes moved to the top of the stairs and smirked as a little color left her features. She snapped her eyes back to Rin, pulled an envelope from her briefcase and shoved it into Rin's hands. "Give it to your bitch of a sister." The woman turned on her heel and all but ran out the door, Tsubaki following her in silence and haste.

Rin frowned, holding the slender business envelope in her hand and turned to see who had frightened the unnamed woman so deeply. The sight before her made Rin swallow painfully and tremble to her core.

Chora stood on the top of the stairs, her normally golden tresses midnight black, her eyes jet and her fingers formed to talons. Long ebony feathers sprouted from the backs of her arms like a cloak of night and, for a moment, Rin was certain she was looking on the face of death.

"Ch-Chora?" At first she didn't respond. "Chora? What's the matter with you?"

The Morrigain's daughter snapped her hollow, eternal gaze onto the diminutive mortal form of her sister. For a moment, there was little but the spark of recognition and then the darkness faded and the lavender gaze returned in mild confusion. Chora moved quickly to her sister and hugged her. "Oh, Rinny, I'm sorry for frightening you!"

Rin clung to her and trembled. "You are a scary bitch..."

Chora laughed and smoothed her sister's hair. "So I've realized."

Rin hugged Chora more tightly and the letter fell forgotten to the floor. "What the hell did you change into?"

"Let's go and get you fed... And I'll explain everything," Chora replied and took Rin's hand as they walked to the kitchen.

At the foot of the stairs, scrawled in Naraku's hand, waited a letter addressed to Kagome Higurashi.

Kouga was quite pleased with himself. He was to be a father, he had his mate and he had finally been able to remedy a mistake he'd made. Kouga was a proud wolf. He prided himself on making very few, if any, mistakes whether it was in his personal life or in business. He hated humbling himself and apologizing because it meant he had failed someone as well as himself. On those rare occasions he did screw up royally, he felt a grand gesture a good way of proving his contriteness. Until he could manage the grand gesture, he found the words "I am sorry" hollow and meaningless.

He'd made a mistake with Chora Dane and her sisters. He'd misunderstood Sesshomaru and failed his best friend. He'd wracked his brain for a way to make it up to them. Everything he considered seemed hollow until he came upon an idea. Chora Dane was in the country with her sisters on work visas. If they broke their contracts with Naraku, they would lose their rights to stay in the country. If he knew Naraku, the bastard would already have set up an immediate deportation for the women if they did break their contracts. While Kagome, Sango, and Rin were all half Japanese and eligible to become citizens based on their birthright, the only person who was in real danger of deportation was Chora.

Kouga smiled a wicked grin. That was the case until Chora became mated to Inuyasha. The two need only marry and the contract could be broken without fear of any of the women being deported. The paperwork was all prepared and stashed in the satchel resting on the passenger seat.

He recalled the conversation he'd had with Kagome about their contract with Naraku. The women hadn't realized how ruthless the hanyou was, nor how wicked. The sliminess they could ignore, but they were distressed by his rather heavy handedness with Ayame and his overbearing, if not possessive nature. He wanted to find a way to help them out of their contract. Even if it hadn't been for Inuyasha's relationship with Chora and the budding romance of Sesshomaru and Kagome, he would have wanted to help them. After all, their current entanglement with Naraku was mostly his fault, if not all his doing.

As he neared the turn off, a black car barreled around the corner, nearly hitting him and forcing him off the road into the gully. He cursed, slammed on his brakes and was saved from being thrown face first out of the windshield by the airbag and his seatbelt.

A few moments later, he limped out of the gully with the satchel over his shoulder, holding a handkerchief to his bloody nose. He cursed and spit blood, then began to move slowly to the house. When he caught up with whoever it was that barreled out of the Taisho estate and nearly killed him, he was going to make sure they hurt both physically and financially.

There were very few days she didn't look in the mirror and see a whore staring back. Sango had traded a lot of things in her life that, at the time, she didn't believe really matter. So long as she had her sisters, so long as they were safe and happy, she had been ready to relinquish any part of herself. She'd tricked herself into believing their love and happiness was worthy anything she had to give. She was the eldest. It was her job to protect them when Morgan was away. She'd protected them by sacrificing every little part of her that she could ever call herself. She'd sold her body for their safety and, with every little agony and surrender in the night, shattered pieces of her innocence, her self respect, her soul were chipped away until all she had was a shard of glimmering jewel left to catch the light.

They all had secrets. Chora, Kagome, Rin and Sango... They all had something they weren't able to say out loud to each other. Something horrible they were afraid the others couldn't ever forgive. Sango could see it in her sisters' eyes as easily as she recognized it in her own. She knew she'd be able to forgive them whatever hurts they'd kept to themselves. Love does that. Maybe they'd even be able to forgive her, but she knew she'd never forgive herself. It was the regret for her actions that killed her every time she thought about her secret. What kind of sister makes that sacrifice, protects her beloveds, and then regrets it? Wishes she'd never done it? It was like wishing her fate on them. Perhaps she would be forgiven, but she knew she didn't deserve it.

She finished braiding her hair and looked to the bed. She didn't know when he'd left her and, honestly, she didn't care. They were using each other and had been for a few days. She told herself, at least, that they were using each other. She had to tell herself that because the possible truth hurt her too much. They were both fastidious by nature and so none of their siblings knew yet what happened when everyone went to bed. A youkai's nose, as Miroku had told her, especially Sesshomaru's nose, was painfully delicate and, if they wanted to keep their secret, perfect cleanliness was the only way.

She'd warned him from the beginning that she couldn't love the way most women did. She didn't tell him why. He was a fool if he didn't realize how experienced she was and she'd be an even greater fool to ignore his prowess. There wasn't an evening their rather voracious appetites weren't sated fully and, for Sango, such a thing was rare. She met her own eyes in the mirror again and pushed a stray lock of hair behind her ear. She reminded herself again that he was as much a toy to her as she was to him. Whores didn't love. Whores didn't deserve to love. In the end, no matter how golden her heart was, that was all she was and would ever be. Somewhere deep she felt something crack and break away and she looked away from her own gaze. She did not see in that briefest second how brightly her eyes shone when her mind brushed the whisper of his memory.

She looked at the letter in her hands. She had all but skipped down the stairs in her anticipation for the day. Sesshomaru and she were going on a hike and picnic into the nearby hills. It was hard not to absorb his almost boyish glee and so the prospect of their outing, planned the day before, had lightened her spirits more than they might have had she been going with one of her sisters. At the base of the stairs had rested the envelope adorned with her name in an elegant hand she'd seen before. Naraku's handwriting, whether it was in Japanese or English, was fluid and refined, belying the inherent sliminess of the man.

While she and her sisters had stayed on the Taisho estate, she had spoken more with Ayame about the man and had secretly begun thinking of ways to escape his iron legal hold over herself and her sisters' fates. The four of them had been working in the evenings after dinner and well into the night to finish the project they had been hired to complete with Naraku and they were only a few days off from the finishing touches. She had forced herself to swallow her pride and resentment and spoke to Kouga about a way once the project was done to escape future employment with Naraku and still retain their residency in Japan. He had seemed hopeful and Kagome had stopped worrying... As much. The letter was setting off alarm bells in her head, though.

She sighed and shook her head and tore open the envelope, procuring a single sheet of letter head signed by the man himself. As she read, her blood began to run cold.

"_My dear Kagome,_

_ It has come to my attention that you prefer to ignore my request to distance yourself from the Taishos. This is a perilous mistake both financially and personally. If you persist in your friendship with Taisho Sesshomaru and his pack, I will be forced to void our contract and have you and your sisters forcibly sent back to the United States immediately. Even if you feel you may avoid this consequence via the help of the Taishos, know that I hold one final gambit. _

_ His name is Daeg Bain. His mother, Brigid, is now a very close friend of mine. The little hanyou is quite a sweet young boy, however, he is a fugitive to American justice as he has never been given his inhibitor injection or anklet. Please inform his aunt, Chora, if she does not wish for him to be taken to the United States Embassy, she will return and you, Sango and Rin will accompany her._

_ My sincerest regards,_

_ Naraku Onigumo"_

The implication was clear. Everything was so clear and Kagome wasn't sure whether to cry or scream. She wasn't sure how long she stood there staring at the letter, but she didn't hear Kouga enter the front door, nor did she notice him approach her. She heard his voice from whatever vague, distant place she had vanished to and looked up sharply.

"What?"

"I said you look pale..." Kouga approached and helped her sit on the stare, frowning deeply as he noticed the letter. "That smells very ominous."

"Smells?"

"Naraku has a very definitive stench I have never been inclined to tolerate," he sat beside her and she said nothing, simply staring back at the letter. He waited another moment, then put his hand out. "May I read it?"

She blinked again, her mind numb and cold. She finally responded and handed it over without looking at him. She rested her head in her hands, closed her eyes and waited for him to say something. She nearly jumped out of her skin when she felt a gentle hand on her shoulder.

"Shhh..." She trembled and looked back to him as he tried to calm her down. She finally saw the state he was in.

"What happened to you?" His nose was a bit crooked and a blood was staining his shirt. Any bruising was gone, if it had existed, but his hair was disheveled and there was a tear in the knee of his Armani slacks.

"A car ran me off the road while I was coming to the gate... Kagome, how did this letter get here?" She shook her head, blinking a bit and he scowled. "Do you know anything about this Daeg Bain?" She shook her head again. Her eyes were so far away and the concern that had welled up in him upon first seeing her only deepened. She was going into shock. He helped her stand up and began to lead her into the living room when Sesshomaru entered the room, his eyes flooded with worry. "Maru?"

"What happened?" His eyes fell on Kouga so hard that he felt as if he had been dealt a blow. How could the inuyoukai have known something was wrong with her? Kouga hadn't smelled him anywhere near the stairwell.

"She found this," he handed it to Sesshomaru and helped Kagome sit on the couch. "I think she's going into shock. Where's Jinenji?"

"Meg arrived late last night," was Sesshomaru's passive answer. He was focused on the letter. Only an instant later, Kouga heard a deep feral growl welling in his friend's throat. He looked to Kouga sharply, his eyes beginning to bleed red. "Who brought this here?"

"I don't know the scent of the human female who is on the envelope. Kagome doesn't know how it arrived, either," Kouga looked up as he heard someone bounding down the stairs. He knew the footsteps. "Kit, find Chora, Rin and Sango."

The kitsune smirked and entered the living room and frowned deeply upon taking in the scene. "What the hell? Kouga, why did you get in a fight with Maru?"

Kouga scowled and stood. Sesshomaru traded places with him and knelt in front of Kagome, taking one of her hands, placing the letter on the coffee table. Her eyes raised and fell on the piece of parchment. "Somebody nearly killed me when I was driving in here. Look, just go and find them, ok? Tell them to get in here and then go and rouse Jinenji."

Shippo nodded and his eyes fell on Kagome. Concern rushed into his features and he was off like a shot, tracking down the three sisters. Kouga turned back to Sesshomaru and Kagome. He had moved to sit beside her on the couch and, opening his arms, had been rewarded with her curling into his lap. He held her so tenderly, wordlessly comforting her as he combed his claws through her dark hair. Kouga smelled salt and noticed she was crying silent tears and turned away. The scene was too intimate to intrude, even for a pack mate.

He heard footsteps several moments later, all quickly moving to the living room from different areas of the house. Chora, Rin and Inuyasha arrived from the direction of the kitchen, Miroku and Sango from the library and Ayame, Jinenji and Meg from the garden followed by a slightly breathless Shippo. His eyes fell instantly on Chora who was looking at Kagome cradled in Sesshomaru's arms.

"Chora," she looked up and met Kouga's gaze. "Who is Daeg Bain?"


	14. Chapter 14

14-

_Have you ever had a moment when time stood still? When the air was so thick with emotion that you didn't want to breathe? When you thought the world had stopped and that you were in hell because you'd never see the next moment and you thought to yourself that this... This is what death is like._

Chora stood transfixed. The name spun in her mind again and again. The name she couldn't say had been spoken and now she had to impart her truth. She couldn't speak for a full moment and then she found her strength. "He is Morgan's son," she said softly and felt her hand woven with Inuyasha's. "He's my nephew."

Kouga frowned softly. "Where did that letter come from?" He pointed to the slightly crumpled parchment that still wreaked of Naraku.

"Tsubaki and some American brought it," Rin began. She sounded small and distant. Her eyes were on Kagome. "She wanted to give it to Kagome. I must have dropped it."

"The American's name is Brigid," Chora said softly. She began to look to Kagome, but her eyes fell on the floor. "Morgan took her as a lover."

"Why did you keep this secret for so long?" Chora flinched as she felt Sesshomaru's eyes on her. She could not bear to look at him either.

"He made me swear," she felt so small and alone. "But that wasn't the reason. I did it for her..."

"You can't actually expect us to believe that, can you?" Sango said sharply and Chora's eyes snapped up. "How old is this kid, anyway?"

"Six."

"Six? So you are telling us nearly the whole damned time they were mated, he was screwing around with this woman?"

"Sango, you don't understand..." Chora's eyes were pleading and filled with fear.

"That isn't the kind of thing you keep secret," Sango snapped. Miroku tried to grab her hand, but she jerked away. "What? Blood is thicker than water? What else are you keeping hidden?"

"Nothing!"

"Like hell..."

"Sango, stop!" Rin stepped between them as Sango advanced on Chora. Kagome had said nothing. She was still, silent and calm and that frightened Rin more than anything. "Everyone has secrets," she said sharply and met Sango's eyes. "Some are worse than others," Sango paled visibly at Rin's knowing look. "We all have reasons for keeping them and, when faced with the truth, don't you think there's history enough between us that we at least have earned the right to be heard out?"

Sango tensed, but nodded and Rin looked to Chora. "Tell us why you kept the secret, Chora."

Chora had started to cry, but she forced herself to speak. "He made her into what he wanted her to be. Goddess, he all but sculpted her from childhood. She lived for him and would have died with him if she could have. He was cursed to be two men... The man who loved Kagome and the man who was Dagda's son. For what it is worth, in defense of the dead, he only ever took Brigid as a lover. But it doesn't make it right... It doesn't make my silence right, but I couldn't watch as Kagome turned into a shell. What Morgan did was unforgiveable... Not his tryst with Brigid, not Daeg... Even that can be forgiven in time, but he had no right to alter Kagome so much," Her gaze turned fierce and her eyes bled black. "He could alter mortal hearts. He loved Kagome and he made for damned sure she loved him back. I have to believe some part of her made the choice to love my brother, but I know... I know it wasn't all her heart. Hate me for keeping that secret if you must hate anyone, but that was my reason. It is one thing to break someone's memory of a beloved, but it is another to break your sister's soul."

_I know I should be angry. I know I should be hurt. I know that I should want to die, but I don't. There's this part of me that is shimmering and I don't know why. As afraid as I am of the next moment, I don't want to be frozen here forever. I want to move beyond it, even if that means that the world I've known for so long shatters and dies at my feet._

The room was still for a moment, but the air was thick. Sango's eyes did not divert from Chora's who now had black bleeding from her roots into her golden mane. Finally, the youngest of the sisters found her words.

"What else was in the letter?" She moved to it and snatched it up quickly, reading through the fluid text. Her eyes flashed with anger. "Mother fucker... He's using Daeg to hurt us and she's letting him. She's his mother, for Goddess' sake!"

Chora tensed even more and Inuyasha put an arm around her shoulder. "What do you mean, Rin?"

"He wants to make the girls return to the city and do as he says or else he will have them deported," Kouga said, the words like bile on his tongue. "If they try to get out of it, he'll take Daeg to the American embassy..."

"Oh, Goddess, they'll kill him..." The room went still again as she found her voice. Kagome stood suddenly, her eyes still calm and unwavering. Sesshomaru stood and touched her shoulder. She looked to him and he could see the strength he so admired flooding her features. "He's a child, but they'll kill him. They've done it before... Morgan he... We... Chora..." She met her sister's eyes and the blackness faded, leaving only mournful dimly glowing lavender. "I swore on your brother's blood that I'd finish the work we'd started. He never stopped fighting and, when we joined and he gave me his immortality, his war, our parents' war became mine, too. It wasn't ever supposed to happen the way that it did. Everything went so wrong so quickly and I had to break my promise to him."

"Kagome, what are you saying?" Sango finally found her voice.

"It was supposed to be an uprising," Her voice sounded hollow and she laughed sadly. "It was all going to begin at your concert, and then it all went wrong. All Brigid had to do was make sure you got off the stage before the riot began. She gave the word too soon and then you didn't move... And he couldn't watch you die... And neither could I... And then he was gone and you were so broken... And I made the choice that you mattered more."

"You did it..."

"Not alone, Chora," Kagome trembled but didn't look away. "But I helped... But I wouldn't take it back, because we did it for all the right reasons... And I never told you because I needed to make sure that there was plausible deniability in case someone ever found out what was going on..."

Chora slipped from Inuyasha's grasp and moved to Kagome. The space between them was small, but it seemed to take forever for her to traverse the distance. She paused and the two moved together at once, embracing tightly, holding onto each other. They knew full well that there was hurt enough for a lifetime between them, but forgiveness was an easy decision to make.

"I'm sorry..." Neither knew who said the words first, but they were said and their embrace tightened. Slowly they pulled back and met gazes in pure understanding.

"We need to hurry," Chora whispered, her eyes suddenly lost. "He's only a child."

Kagome turned and looked to Sesshomaru. As their eyes met, it seemed as if a veil had been lifted from her gaze and he felt he was seeing her for the first time and knew, without doubt, he'd never need to contend with a ghost ever again. "Tell me what you need us to do, Kagome."

_Life is a strange ordeal. There are no rules governing how it progresses. Laws governing time and physics have no hold over the events that occur and how they change our hearts. I couldn't have known when I woke up this morning that my life would change so much so quickly. I couldn't have known and I'm glad that I didn't. His arms were so safe for me. I could hear another world move around me, but he kept me safe so it couldn't really touch me. He left me alone and sheltered me without trying to change me or fix anything. He let me choose the path and that has made all the difference._

Kouga was making calls and Chora and Inuyasha had gone with Jinenji and Meg to discuss the best course of action when descending on Naraku's office building. Shippo was working busily on hacking into the survailence system with Rin providing him a steady supply of confections to aid his speedy little chipmunk brain. Sango and Miroku had gone with Ayame to look through her files for blackmail material and Kagome had grabbed Sesshomaru's hand and moved quickly with him up the stairs to her room.

He watched as she moved quickly to the dresser and started throwing out clothing as she searched for something buried at the bottom. After a few seconds, she procured a slightly crumpled manilla envelope with several lines of postage stamps.

"What is it?"

"I don't know," she said in a shakey tone and met his gaze. "Morgan sent this to me the day before he... But he had it forwarded seven or eight times to ensure I got it a full month after the concert. I was afraid to open it. I'd sworn to myself I'd protect Chora and I was afraid whatever was in it would pull me back into the cause. But I wonder now..."

She sat on the bed and he sat beside her, watching her expressions. "When I got it, I knew he'd sent it as a procaution. If everything had gone well, he would have intercepted it or explained it away as nervousness on his part and I'd never need to know what secrets he needed to impart in case he died that day."

"Now that we know Daeg exists..."

She looked up and smiled sadly. "Exactly. Morgan was a dog. I knew that long before he ever mated me, but I pretended that, as long as he always found his way back to my bed, what ever trysts he had couldn't touch me. He was mine and I never had to share him."

His eyes widened slightly. "So you knew..."

"Kaede told me," she said simply. "She told me when I was seventeen that she and Morgan had once been lovers and that it had ended because he couldn't ever truly be loyal to any one woman. She told me because she said I had the right to know, so I could choose my fate and... No matter what Chora says, I need to believe that it was my decision to be with him. I need to believe that I really did love him, no matter if he controlled me with his gifts. The alternative..."

"It's too much for anyone to bear," He said softly and gently put an arm around her. He looked down to the envelope. "For what it is worth, I believe you did love him. If you didn't, you wouldn't have held onto his memory and hid from the world for so long after he died."

"When I open this envelope, there won't be anywhere left to hide, Maru," she said softly and rested her head on his shoulder, smiling as he kissed the top of her head. "You can ask me, now."

He smirked and covered her hands with his where she held the envelope on her lap. "Not yet. Some things are more important than a question I already know the answer to."

She trembled and nodded. His hand fell from her shoulders to her waist as she tore the seal open and pulled a thin portfolio of papers from the envelope. Another, smaller envelope was paper clipped to the front with her name on it in Morgan's hand. She pulled it off and laid it down beside her, opening the portfolio. Her eyes widened as she met the lavender gaze of Daeg Bain. She released a breath she'd not known she was holding and began to go through the papers. Sesshomaru stayed with her and read through the small stack of legal documents. The last had a line she needed to sign. "I can't believe this... It's like he knew that she'd do this. He prepared for everything..."

"Kagome... You only need to sign this and Naraku and Brigid will not be able to harm him."

"I know," her voice wavered and tears fell down her face. She looked up and met his gaze. "Will this change anything between us? If I sign this..."

He leaned and kissed her, pulling her close with one hand, keeping her hold on the portfolio with the other as if cradling a child. After a few moments, he broke the kiss and pressed his brow to hers. "Sign it, Kagome. I will love him as my son."

_Sometimes the best thing that can happen is the world ending. I couldn't have believed that this morning. I would have fought and argued the point until I ran out of breath. Change is good. The truth is good, even if it hurts. Even if it destroys everything. I would rather my world in pieces at my feet, facing a new one being born than ever walk in the past again. Some things are meant to fall away._


	15. Chapter 15

15-

_The lights were low and the crowd pulsed with anticipation. Occasionally, in the seconds before the song began, as the soft thrum of the bass and cello reverberated through the hall, excitement would billow up and one solitary scream would pierce the pure tones building through deft fingers drawing bows along strings, only halos of light from behind illuminating the pages of notes before them. _

_Standing before them, bedecked in white, her golden tresses long with black feathers woven carefully into loose braids, holding the microphone in both hands stood the Morrigain reborn in the flesh of her only daughter poised to sing once more. When her voice cut through the tension- pure, strong and sure- it was a song of joy that reached his ears. Finally, she heard her sister sing..._

The trip to Naraku's offices was made shorter by the urgency of the moment. In the car, Chora and Inuyasha signed the official documents necessary to make their mating permanent. Kagome, Rin and Sango signed their declarations of heritage and all were returned to Kouga with the documents proclaiming Kagome the rightful guardian of Daeg. Kouga carefully sealed them into a manilla envelope after scanning the documents and uploading them with his tablet. Within an hour, the documents would be approved by Kouga's friends in the immigration offices and there would be no way for Naraku to deport any of them. Within an hour, they would be at Naraku's door and Daeg would be safely in the arms of his family. Within an hour, it would be over and they could all return home as the pack they had always been meant to be.

"_I saw you,_

_I knew you,_

_I loved you forever and ever._

_You saw me,_

_You knew me,_

_You loved me forever and ever..._

_Don't lose this moment,_

_Don't forget my voice,_

_Don't ever walk away,_

_I'll never leave,_

_I'll always be,_

_Always by your side..."_

_It was a new song. She'd written it in the quiet moments of the night while watching her lover sleeping, his snowy hair made silver by the pale starlight pouring through the window of the Taisho family home. She'd put pencil to page in the deep of the night when she'd first sensed their baby move within her. She had been reborn in Inuyasha's arms the year before... Now she wanted a world their son could grow up in without fear of his heritage. There was so much more to be done... But one day, she wanted to walk free by her mate's side to her mother and brother's graves and tell the story of how they had won true freedom to be exactly who they were born to be._

"You can't just burst into my offices like this! You have no fucking right!" Naraku spat at them, pulling up his pants as the five women moved quickly to locate their own garments thrown carelessly here and there.

Sesshomaru raised his brow and smirked. "You should not celebrate victory until you are certain there is no chance of defeat."

Chora moved quickly to the closet where she sensed Daeg cowering with Kagome on her heels. Her hair bled black as she tore the door off its hinges. Pale lavender eyes red with tears looked up at the two women he had only dreamed of knowing. "Daeg... You're safe, Baby..." His aunt breathed.

The boy let out a little cry and rushed to the two of them, clinging first to them both, then to Kagome, breathing her in, burying his face in her hair. "Momma..." He whispered and was rewarded with her embrace tightening and the scent of her tears.

"I'll never let you go, Daeg," came her whispered response. Kagome turned sharply and met Brigid's eyes with hatred. "I dare you to try and take him from me, you bitch."

The woman withered in fear, her eyes first on Chora whose eyes and hair were blackest midnight, then to Kagome who was pulsing with latent power entirely focused on her, Naraku and his whores. "But... He's my son..."

"No, not any more," Kouga countered and smirked. "The documents were successfully filed this morning, thanks to the foresight of Morgan Bain... And your stupidity. I'm sure you remember a certain set of documents you signed little over a year ago? Well... Kagome's signature fell just under the deadline necessary to transfer full custody. Be thankful we're not planning to press charges against anyone involved."

"Charges? What do you mean, you bastard?" Kikyo began.

"Kidnapping and child endangerment," Sango retorted as Kagome and Chora walked to the door. Sesshomaru wrapped an arm around Kagome's shoulder and Inuyasha took his mate's hand.

"Not to mention blackmail," Miroku added with a dashing smile.

"We've chosen to not break our contract with you, Naraku," Rin said with mischief in her eyes. Shippo tossed a flash drive into the seething Naraku's palm. "Those are all of the files and data we completed for your project. The four of us regret to inform you, however, that we will not be renewing our business dealings with your company... We've been offered a much more lucrative deal with Sesshomaru and Inuyasha Taisho... One you'd be hard pressed to ever match."

Naraku stared in disbelief, then hatred as he watched them turn to go. "This isn't over!"

Inuyasha turned and met his gaze meaningfully. "Yes, it is. Enjoy your afternoon."

_The sound was so pure in her ears, it was like a dream come true. The arms around her tightened and she smiled, resting her head against his as he watched entranced through newly purchased green lensed glasses. How long had she waited for this moment? How long had she dreamed of hearing her sister sing again? And now it was all coming to fruition. Next to them, the tablet registered every digital response from every continent as Chora's music was transmitted through cyberspace, satellite and wifi worldwide. It had taken them nearly six months with the help of Shippo's hacker circle to make it all possible. _

_Chora's music was more than just a song; her music was a call to justice and it was a call to all who heard it to seek a lasting freedom for those oppressed because of their faerie and youkai heritage. It had been Rin's idea to ensure everyone heard it at once. She had been electric with excitement at the thought of governments trying to silence the banshee song, but now all she did was listen and smile. She was happy. She was in the arms of the man who loved her exactly for who she was and would never seek to change her wild and silly ways... And her sister was singing... Her sister was singing._

They were home again, but he new he needed to talk to her before another moment passed. He grabbed her by her wrist and pulled her into the garden.

"Miroku, what the hell?" Sango frowned at him, but was stilled by the clear, determined look in his eyes. "What's the matter?"

"I love you," he saw the fear in her eyes and held her by her shoulders, determined not to let her go. "Damnit, Sango! I love you... Do you hear me?"

"You don't know what you're saying..."

"I know what I'm saying and I know what I'm feeling..."

"But you don't know me," her gaze was so pained he ached. "You don't know what I am..."

"I know you, Sango... Just listen to me, ok?" He was rewarded with a tearful silence. "You think I don't see what life has done to you? I don't know the whole story, but I can see the scars it's left... And I love you. I love you- the woman I know- for your kindness and strength, for your devotion and warmth... I love you... And I know you love me, too."

She let out a little sob and began to cry. "Miroku, I... There aren't words for the horrible things I've done... That were done to me... That I let happen... Please take it back!"

"No. Not ever," he pulled her close and felt her cling to him. "We only have so much time on this planet, Sango. I want to live the rest of my time with you. I want to make you happy, so I can be happy. You are the most beautiful woman I've ever known and your soul... As scarred as it is, I can't imagine anyone stronger and more perfect."

She sobbed and clung to him, seeking his lips, kissing him deeply. He shuddered with the intensity of her response and held her more surely against him. All he knew was he hadn't felt alone since he'd met her. He wasn't afraid of dying since he'd first made love to her. And all he wanted was for her to feel the same. Now he knew she did.

_Her voice was the pure emotion that resonated through the both his body and his soul. He sat back stage holding their tiny son who slept so soundly to the ethereal tones of his mother's voice. The little hanyou's raven hair fell in waves around the dark ears perched on the crest of his head, twitching now and then as he dreamed. He was why she sang... Their baby boy, Morgan._

_When he had been born, Chora had held him close and gazed down into his amber eyes as they first opened. She had looked up to him in tears. "Inuyasha, help me fulfill my mother and brother's dreams... Help me so our son can walk the world a free man someday."_

_He'd never thought twice. This was the first of many steps, but he knew what they dreamed could be accomplished. He had to believe the dream could come true... For all of their children._

"Why did you stay?" His voice sounded like the very warmth of the earth in her ears. She did not turn around, nor did she respond. She leaned into his arms as his massive arms wrapped around her protectively. "Why, Meg? What has changed?"

"I have," she whispered and covered his hands with her own. She closed her eyes. "In all my long life, I'd never known what it was to forgive. I was of the furies. We sought vengeance, not forgiveness. We brought madness... Perhaps... I am finally sane."

He kissed the crown of her head. Jinenji loved her beyond words. She was the most beautiful creature he'd ever known and she saw his soul, not his form. She loved him for his soul. "Do not leave me again. I could not take your absence a second time."

She turned and met his gaze finally and drew him into a deep kiss. She reached out with her immortal soul and fused it with his. A smile blended into her kiss as she felt him shudder and hold her closer. "I won't ever leave you, my love."

He gazed down at her in wonder and saw his immortal beloved blush as if she were a girl. "Why... Why now?"

"Because... After everything I did and said to you in the past, you never stopped loving me. You always forgave me... You see my worth and make me believe I deserve to live, even if I am the only part of a trinity that survived," She clung to him tightly and smiled as she heard the rasping of his dying lungs, the labor of his fading heartbeat return to youthful strength and power. "You make me whole."

He smiled and held her tightly to him. She was the only one aware of his condition, but now it did not matter. He could feel the change in her soul, had heard it in her voice when she had called. He could think of no greater joy than knowing she had learned what it was to forgive and love... Until he understood in that moment she loved him and would ever be by his side.

_The boy's gaze was transfixed upon her regal form as she began to sing the final song of the last set. The audience was enrapt upon her and lost in the beautiful voice they had not heard in so very long. Even more, he could feel the world as lost in her spell. Hearts were changing. The world was changing, and one day soon, everything would be different. His father's dream would be realized. _

_Daeg felt his mother's hand on his shoulder and looked back to her with a smile. She was so beautiful and kind. Her smile alone healed all the hurt of his life, but the love he saw between her and his adopted father was enough to make the world perfect in his heart. He stood and then sat next to Kagome and held tightly to her hand. He was safe. He would always be safe, from now on._

Kagome gently pulled the covers up to Daeg's chin and kissed his brow. He was deeply asleep and, after the day they had endured, she understood the feeling. She turned and closed the door behind her, then smiled at the gentle pressure of Sesshomaru's hands resting on her shoulders.

"You are so good with him," Sesshomaru breathed and smiled as she leaned into his arms. He kissed her cheek gently and she smiled.

"It's as if he's been mine from the moment he was born. Maybe he has been..." She turned and embraced him tightly. Sesshomaru smiled and kissed the crown of her head. "Yes."

His eyes opened wide, then focused down into her shimmering eyes. "You don't even know the question."

"Then ask it," she whispered, almost pleading with him.

He trembled and then rested his brow to hers. "Can you love me?"

"Forever," her response echoed through his mind. He captured her lips and felt some fragile thread between them flare and blaze crimson. Kagome gasped and pressed surely to him as he deepened his kiss, gathering her up in a steely embrace.

"Kagome," he began, barely able to breathe.

"Do you know what that was?" Her voice was so certain, but he had no idea. He hadn't tried to do anything. He shook his head. "We belong to each other. We have always belonged to each other."

He searched her expression and found something he'd not expected- joy. He brushed her hair back from her face and gently held her at the nape of her neck. "Are you certain?"

"Aren't you?" She smiled coyly. "Sesshomaru, it isn't something that can be undone. Don't you understand?" She reached up and touched his lips with feathery fingertips. Some things we don't choose. Some things choose us."

He let a soft laugh escape him and he hugged her. "Inuyasha will never let me forget this..."

"Forget what?" Kagome asked, a smile in her voice.

"That he was right."

_Taisho Sesshomaru looked out his great window at the world he only dreamed of living in all of his life. His piano was gone. His paints had been packed in boxes and taken away days before. Soon, it would not be his home. He was giving it to Kouga and Ayame. He felt Kagome twine her fingers with his and smiled as her head rested against his shoulder. Only a few days earlier, Chora had performed for the world, and the world had started to shift. The world was changing._

"_How did you live your whole life like this? Looking out... But never being able to touch anything?"_

"_I wasn't alive. It was enduring pain and disappointment, wishing I had died... That my father had not loved me so much... Had not fought so hard to keep me alive," he looked down at her form and wrapped his arm around her protectively. "How is the child today?"_

"_Growing," she said softly in reply, touching the small swell just beginning to show. "Jinenji says it might be twins."_

_He chuckled and drew her into a tender kiss. Since their bonding, he'd been able to walk the world without needing her near him. He had even been able to hold Kouga's newborn daughter and helped the poor wolf change the infant when she had desperately needed a change and Ayame had been out with Kagome. The women had laughed at their mates, finding them shirtless with a freshly bathed baby girl sleeping on Kouga's chest in no more than a diaper. He'd never had another fear about becoming a father._

"_May they be a boy and a girl..." He said simply and kissed his mate again. "And may they be as beautiful as their mother."_

It had been years since she had seen the monuments to her brother and mother, but they still were there hidden deep in the forests to the North of where she had grown up with her sisters. Her whole pack had returned and with them they also had brought their children. Daeg stood taller than Kagome, and soon he would be a man. His sister and brother each held to one of his hands as he stared down onto the Morrigain and Morgan's graves.

"Was he a good man, Kagome?" Daeg asked in a voice eerily similar to Morgan's, but it did not upset her. It made her smile he had some part of his father.

"He was one of the best men I knew, Daeg, and he loved you," Kagome replied. Sesshomaru smiled and put an arm around the shoulder of his mate. "He would have been so proud of you."

"He was always proud of me," Daeg murmured and smiled sadly. "And... I am proud of him, Mother."

The twins looked up to their brother and glowed. "Fly us, Brother!" Cried Kaede. "Fly us both!" Echoed Maru.

Daeg smiled and grabbed them both up and swung them onto his back. "Hold on tight!"

"Daeg!" Kagome started, then calmed at the look on her son's face. He was so certain and strong. "Be careful."

"Always," he replied with a smile, then ran and shifted as he jumped high into the air. His arms shifted into huge black wings and his body big enough for the twins to rest easily upon him without fear of falling. He turned and looked down on his family... His true family. _Always_.


End file.
